3 Ninjas: Final Summer
by unc00lbr0
Summary: UPDATE 7/28/13! Hugo Snyder has escaped from prison, and regains his power as an arms dealer. The ninjas are concerned, and what is this mysterious item the ninjas have found? Rated T for some language and action.
1. Prologue

**A/N: This is my first fan fiction ever. Please rate and review. I'm still getting the hang of how this site works, so bear with me, and if you have any advice to give, by all means! This first chapter is very short and probably isn't enough to pique your interest so I uploaded chapter 2 as well. Please, constructive criticism only!  
Note: I do not own anything 3 ninjas except the dvds.**

**This story takes place with all three of the original ninjas, they are all a little older than they were at the end of knuckle up and chronologically, these events occur after High Noon at Mega Mountain. Ages are 16, 15, and 12.**

It was five o'clock p.m., another day in prison, and one man was alone in a single seven by seven prison cell. Small timers got bigger cells for some odd reason, but Hugo Snyder was having no problem making things work. Seven hundred push-ups a day, twelve hundred sit ups, these were things that made up his daily routine. Prison had hardened him, not only physically, but mentally as well. Each and every day he pushed himself harder; he had not stopped training since he had been convicted of arms dealing and sent to Pasadena Correctional Facility nearly five years ago.

_Eighty nine. Ninety. Ninety one. Ninety two. _Snyder counted out his push-ups as he strained his chest and triceps just a little more. He was beginning to perspire to the point that his hands were slipping on the hard concrete cell floor. Counting kept his mind off his thoughts as well. There wasn't a day that went by that he hadn't thought about the incident on that tanker five years ago, but today his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of steel-toed boots scuffing the ground around the corner from his cell.

"Here you go, you faggot," Snyder heard over his shoulder. He whipped his sweaty neck around to see a prison guard standing in the doorway of his cell. The guard was holding a tray of purple jell-o in a small dish, and he slid it nonchalantly through the slit in the bars, as the door remained locked. They didn't take any chances with him.

Snyder walked over to the tray and sneered. All of the workers at the prison hated him, yet they always seemed to give him his favorite jell-o. "On time, as promised," he said while taking the tray.

"Aww cut that out, you've been saying that for five damn years!"

Snyder snatched the tray from the man and sat on his bed. As he began to munch vigorously, he began to think. During his time being incarcerated, he had gotten used to thinking a lot. Generally his thoughts revolved around the three boys that had been the reason for him being in this place._ "How could I have been so careless?" _he thought. As he had mentioned several times to his understudy, Mr. Brown, they were just kids! Somehow, they had underestimated the level of skill they had been taught by their grandfather Mori Tanaka.

After finishing his food and shoving the tray into the slot, he walked back to his bed and sat down. He reached into his mattress when the guard was not looking, and pulled out his most sacred item.


	2. Chapter 1: Cabin Training

**A/N: Just to let you know, I tried not to make this story so "Colt-centric" since it seems half the stories on here are about Colt, Even though he is my favorite of the 3. My goal is to capture the feeling of the first movie, while giving all the characters time to develop. Let me know if there are any suggestions!**

The day was bright and sunny, with a touch of humidity in the air, a perfect day at Grandpa Mori Tanaka's cabin in southern California. A lone figure clad in black and wearing a red mask was darting around the foliage surrounding the cabin, trying to remain silent. Silence was no problem for this man, as he was a ninja with many years of training under his belt. The old ninja looked toward the sky and determined the time of day; the sun struck and tickled the black outlines of the red mask design.

The ninja was in fact, Mori Tanaka himself. He was about to move on when something behind him on his right caught his attention. Something had moved near the small shrub, and he was sure of it. Thoughts went through his head; Tum Tum had pulled this trick many times before, but it would not work this time. Grandpa slowly crept up to the bush, and when he was close enough, he swiftly whipped his hand out and lifted the bush up about a foot. Instead of finding Tum Tum, much to his surprise, a squirrel jumped out. It was a good thing that Mori was on his guard, or else the small creature might have been dead.

Standing up, grandpa Mori breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that there was no little ninja underneath the shrubbery. However, his rest was brief as a split-second after he stood up he sensed something behind him. He quickly leapt about ten feet to his right and did a somersault behind a boulder to avoid the two ninja stars that embedded themselves in the ground where he once was, making a thwock sound each time they struck.

"Tum, why do you always use those? You know we're just trying to beat him, not kill him, right?" Rocky and Tum Tum had taken refuge behind a small pile of firewood that was stacked up on their grandfather's property to conceal themselves, and Tum Tum was getting a lecture for almost giving themselves away.

"Aw, you know he can't be beaten Rocky," Tum Tum wined.

Rocky squinted his eyes underneath his mask and surveyed their surroundings. He made a fast calculation and determined their strategy. "Either way, did you see where he went? I have an idea but I can't see him anywhere."

Just as the two brothers had thought that their grandfather had escaped their vision, a worn black and red mask popped up right in front of their pile would they were hiding behind and scared the daylights out of them.

"Ahh! It's him!" Tum Tum screamed like a rat.

With a swift kick, Mori caused a small dust storm to send firewood and dirt flying everywhere. He had knocked down the wood pile completely. Rocky and Tum Tum started coughing furiously as they tried to regain their composure. When the dust settled, grandpa was nowhere to be found.

Mori had taken refuge behind a small tree next to the cottage. He was getting old, so he often needed to catch his breath. His three grandsons usually gave him a run for his money, but not once in his lifetime would they ever beat him. He started walking around the side of the cottage with the windows, and at the same time a mysterious figure was creeping along the shingles of the roof watching his every move.

Just a few more feet, Colt thought. He waited the agonizing last few moments before he was about to make his move, but he could not wait any longer. It was as if his legs had been electrified! He jolted off the roof, he raised his bo staff in the air with his arms as far as he could and he and started the descent. He was right on target, he was going to get him. He would finally get him.

"Nope!" Grandpa said, as he ducked, rolled, and tossed a rock at Colt's mask.

Whack. "Ow!" Colt screamed at the pain and agony that had just breached his nose, and in turn he then landed in the garden about four feet away from his grandfather. He had missed.

Colt shook off the pain and got up to see his grandpa take off toward the forest at breakneck speed. He leapt to his feet without even thinking and ran off in his direction as fast as he could.

Mori had a head start so he was further ahead, but he turned around and could see that Colt was not far behind him. Mori grinned a satisfied smile underneath his mask. He had strained his wrist on his last somersault, his muscles were starting to ache, but the wind was blowing in his face, and he still loved every moment of what he was doing. He loved his grandkids. He turned around while running again to see Colt being joined by Rocky and Tum Tum running behind him but slowly catching up to where Colt was. All four of them were running off a northwest direction, and it seemed as though the three ninjas had grandpa cornered. Mori knew that the boys were younger, and would eventually catch up to him, but he had a trick up his sleeve.

Mori bent down while running to pick up a small stick that he saw. He did not want the kids to think that he was going to throw it at them, so he hid it in his belt in front of him while he ran. He kept checking behind, and as soon as the boys got within ten feet of him, he took the stick in his right hand. He bent his arm back, and whipped it is hard as he could at the oak tree to his left. The stick knocked a stake out of the ground that was holding a tension wire, activating the trap, and causing the camouflage rope net to be rocketed up in the air, tripping up the three ninjas and securing them safely in the air.

"Ahhh! Grandpa, how'd you do that?"

"Colt, get off me!"

"We're sandwiched in this net together, what do you really expect me to do, Tum?"'

The bickering of the three boys went on for a few more moments before their grandfather interrupted them with his chuckling. He was standing directly underneath the net, laughing at the sight of the indistinct pairs of legs and arms sticking out of the large net, slowly spinning ten feet above the ground. "Ah, hah, haa…you still have much to learn boys. This is merely one lesson out of many. Rocky and Tum Tum, you need to find better hiding places. I spotted you two before I even left the cottage this morning!"

Rocky cursed under his breath. Hiding behind the firewood was Tum Tum's idea, and it would be the last time that he would take one of his little brother's ideas.

"What about me, grandpa? I swear I had you in my sights!" Colt quipped from underneath the pile of bodies in the net.

"Oh, Colt. You need to learn to stop being so impulsive, so wild and free. It is your greatest quality, but it is becoming your weakness to be so impatient."

"So what's the lesson here? You always seem to have one," Rocky asked while shifting a leg out of his face.

"Lesson? Ha ha, no lesson," Grandpa was strolling around the net area with no interest in mind. A second later, his head picked up as he got an idea. "Well perhaps…perhaps this should be your lesson today!" Mori took out a small knife from his belt and sliced through the rope holding the net from the oak tree. A loud snap was heard and all three boys started screaming as they fell to the ground.

"OOF!"

"AHH!"

"CRAP!"

All three bodies slammed into the dirt in one giant, net-tangled mess. The boys groaned on the ground for a while, because they had the wind knocked out of them. Eventually one by one they got up, dusted themselves off, and made the humbling walk back to the cabin.


	3. Chapter 2: Indian Ninjas?

Snyder was in an intense bout of concentration. The item he had pulled out of his mattress was one prisoner's records; he had bribed a guard with some cigarettes earlier that week in order to get it. It took the guard about a week to get them, and when he did, he slipped it under Snyder's jell-o bowl tray and gave it to him.

Snyder studied the inmate's record carefully. There had just been a new prisoner that had been admitted to Pasadena a few weeks ago. Snyder had his eye on him. The man looked especially tough and hardened with age, but that was exactly what he was looking for.

The thing is, Snyder had been planning on breaking out for a long time, but he needed an accomplice. He approached dozens and dozens of inmates to find them all inadequate for a full on breakout. The other issue was trust, it was hard to find someone with some kind of criminal integrity in this day and age, if that sort of thing existed. His eyes fell upon the papers.

_Name: Jack Harding. Age: 55. Previous address: 901 Enterprise Drive. Sentence duration: 10 years with the eligibility of parole. Conviction: criminal lewd activity of the second degree, fraud in the first degree, and fraudulent testimony under oath. See attached criminal report._

Snyder scanned the piece of paper as fast as he could, for he did not know whether or not the guard would be coming around soon, and he could not be sure that he wouldn't notice what he was reading, and take it from him. Snyder flipped the stapled report over to view the second page; it was an article. The title read:

_Local Building Contractor Fraud: Ninjas Strike Back. _

Snyder froze. Ninjas? There was no way, could it be that their paths may have crossed in one aspect? It was too much of a coincidence to be ignored, so Snyder read on.

_Jack Harding, 55, the local building contractor for a small town outside Pasadena was convicted of fraud in local courts the other day, but none of the townspeople were shocked or surprised at the turnout. _

_"This has been going on for a decade," one of the local residents commented, "Jack Harding has been dumping trash on our land for years and covering it up. But it wasn't until those three young heroes showed up and saved the day that things really got some closure." _

_Apparently three local boys were the cause of Jack Harding's apprehension. We have not been able to confirm the boys' identities, but we do know that they had some sort of martial arts training which allowed them to storm his complex and find evidence of corruption that was vital to the case, as odd as it sounds. Sometimes movie heroics do work in real life._

_In the end all's well that ends well, but I'm sure if we all had our own three little ninjas around the world, things would remain a little bit more peaceful._

Snyder's blood boiled as he finished the article. There was no other explanation; the three ninjas in the article must have been Sam Douglas' kids! He soon calmed down though, as he knew that this situation would be more beneficial to his proposition than anything else. Snyder quickly ripped the copied record into thin strips and threw them into his toilet, letting them soak for a moment.

Snyder paced around his cell, using his excellent coordinating skills to develop a stratagem in his mind. This is where he found the location of his imprisonment to be most favorable, it was much easier to concoct plans when there was no one to bother him. That night, Snyder was alone in section B-13, and it remained silent, except the distant sound of a flush.


	4. Chapter 3: A Mysterious Object

It had become dark outside Grandpa's cabin. Inside, great smells of food roamed the place. It was dinnertime in summer for the boys, and the crickets outside were providing wonderful accompaniment to the music of food being cooked. Tum Tum was boiling rice, Colt was mixing some ginger sauce, Rocky was setting the table while tending to some chicken in the oven, and Grandpa was fixing an old clock in the living room.

"Tum, you wanna hurry up with that rice?" Rocky requested.

"Perfection takes time, and the rice isn't perfect yet. Besides, your chicken always tastes like dog poop, spaz," Tum Tum shot back.

"Says the twerp who always goes for seconds" Colt quipped.

Tum Tum stuck his tongue out at Colt. He may have been mediocre at times when training, but in the kitchen he never messed around. That was his haven. He organized everything they used or ate. Rocky was going to press the issue again, but Colt interrupted him.

"Tum, you wanna pass me the pepper flakes?" Colt asked, not even taking his head up from the recipe he was following.

He extended his hand out behind him, and waited for the pepper flakes to be delivered to his palm. Tum Tum was also busy tending his rice, so he opened the cabinet to his right, and tossed the cayenne pepper shaker over his shoulder blindly.

"Bigger twerp"

Going in a soft arc, the small container landed perfectly in Colt's outstretched palm, and he began shaking some flakes into the sauce.

All the boys had been not only training since they were really little, but they had also been cooking meals at the cabin for years, so they knew exactly where each of them was at any given time. When something was needed, their quick reaction skills and martial arts training cut any small process time in half.

Eventually, the three boys were finally sitting at the dinner table with their grandfather. After a long day of sparring with each other, they greatly appreciated some time to relax and eat.

"Excellent work today, boys. You really showed some improvement," Grandpa noted as he took a break from his dinner.

"We didn't get any further from what I saw, and I had to cheat," Tum Tum said, his mouth full of rice.

"Ah… Tum Tum, don't be discouraged. I am merely sparing you young boys from gaining a big head."

"How do you always win, Grandpa?" Rocky asked.

"Never attack unless you're sure you can win, boys. And it may appear that I won the fight, but you young ninjas took the battle. I'm afraid I might need a few hours in the tub tonight from all my aches. And this old ninja worked up a big sweat out there, I am smelling pretty bad," Grandpa then turned to Rocky and Colt and whispered, "Kind of like Tum Tum's sushi." Rocky and Colt started laughing.

"What?" Tum Tum looked up from his meal and widened his eyes, not completely hearing what was said.

"A ninja must be aware at all times, Tum," replied Rocky, smiling.

"Anyway, I have something important to show you boys, before you leave next week," Grandpa said as he clasped his hands together, his face beaming.

"Are they those magazines under your bed? Cuz I already found them last summer, ha ha-" Colt joked.

As quickly as a hiccup Grandpa flicked his fork and launched a wad of sushi off of his plate into Colt's still open mouth with perfect accuracy.

"Hrrmmph?!" Colt uttered a muffled yelp while he slapped his hand to his mouth.

"Chew your food Colt," sassed Grandpa with a smile as he stood up.

Rocky and Tum Tum gazed at each other in awe while Grandpa disappeared into the den.

"Here it is," said Grandpa rounding the corner, whilst holding a crinkled brown paper in his hand. He sat back down at the table and went over the paper. As his eyes went down, his smile shrank. "I only just rediscovered this earlier this season. It seems my memory is fading in my old age."

"What is it, Grandpa?" Rocky inquired.

Grandpa fiddled with a corner of the paper in front of him. "Well, I was gardening out back one year, in fact, it was about a year before you were born, Rocky, and I struck something in the ground, something that felt as hard as a rock. "

"What was it?" Tum Tum interrupted after finishing his mouthful.

"It actually was a rock," Grandpa said, while grinning.

The boys groaned and fell back into their seats, because subconsciously they had all sat up and leaned toward their grandfather under the expectations that he was going to tell them that it was some precious treasure.

Undaunted, Grandpa continued, painting a picture with his words, "Yes, a simple stone. To make room, I placed it near my garden and did not think much of it until last year when I began to set up the obstacle course. I picked up the stone and it split in my hands. I realized there was a brilliant green gem inside of it.

"I took it to the Native American village to have it examined that year. There, one of the villagers looked it over and noticed that it had healing properties. I think that was just an old wives' tale, personally.

"The wise native could tell very little else about the precious stone, except that one could do a lot of good or harm with it, depending on whose hands it fell into. Upon hearing that, I hid the stone in the back forest, never to be disturbed again. I quickly wrote down this simple map on this old parchment in case I ever needed to find it. One day, I will show you boys where it is, but not this summer."

"That was in your sock drawer, wasn't it? I found that last week when I was looking for your cigars," explained Colt.

"Colt, clear the table and wash dishes, now!"

"Aw, come on…" Colt groaned as he walked over and reached for Tum Tum's plate.

"Not me! I haven't even had thirds yet!" screeched Tum Tum as he grabbed the plate to reclaim his meal.

"Knock it off Pea-Brain" Colt said, annoyed.

"Leggo, no-brain!" whined Tum Tum, while standing up and pulling with both hands.

"Hey, shut up, Grandpa was talking!" yelled Rocky, exacerbating the situation.

Having lost attention completely, Grandpa sighed as he set the map down and put both hands on his forehead. "I should have had granddaughters…" he mumbled under his breath.

"AIY-YA!" Tum Tum bellowed, as he pulled back with all his might.

The plate was freed of Colt's ninja grip and flung backwards over Tum Tum's head as he fell back into his chair. Flying behind the family and through the den the plate shattered, spattering noodle strands and rice grains all over the four ninja masks displayed on the mantle. Rocky jumped up immediately to inspect the damage while Colt and Tum Tum stared at Grandpa the same way a cow stares at an oncoming train.

"Oops…" whimpered Tum Tum.

"Ten-SHUN!" shouted Grandpa.

All three boys hopped into a unified formation with hands at their sides the same way they had done a thousand times before.

"Colt, what is a ninja?" Grandpa snapped.

"Ah…" he stumbled, caught off guard "A ninja is one who can use everything around him to trick his enemies. He is fast, and-"

"Wrong. Rocky?"

"A ninja is honest and good, he has self cont-"

"Wrong! Tum Tum!"

"A ninja loves na..."

"Absolutely wrong."

The three young boys looked at each other nervously. Grandpa had asked them that same question once a year for at least five years now. What could have possibly changed?

Grandpa just sat there with a stern look on his face, a furrow in his brow, and lowered his voice a little. Looking to Colt he says, "A ninja can be dumb and slow..." Turning around to Rocky, "…a ninja can lie and use deception for evil..." Finally to Tum Tum, "…a ninja can hate nature and fight any battle he chooses to fight...but you are not 'a ninja', you are three ninjas. Each of you has strength and each of you has weakness." He paced around the kitchen.

"Separate," Grandpa turned to Rocky, "You've rescued an innocent girl from a madwoman's wrath," Grandpa turned to Colt, "You've prevented a greedy man from becoming a murderer," Grandpa turned to Tum Tum, "And you've saved me and your brothers from a collapsing cave…"

"…Your brothers and I…" Rocky corrected him, causing them both to smile.

"...Four strands of rope. We are family. Be there for your brothers, and there will be nothing the three of you cannot do." Grandpa consoled, while leaning in and giving his grandsons all one giant hug.


	5. Chapter 4: Snyder Meets Jack

**A/N: Please rate and review!**

"Alright, lunch time, Hahaha!" the guard yelled with passion, with a childish smile across his face, enjoying himself a little too much as he told the inmates what to do. As they did every day, the prisoners all lined up in a single file line to get their daily inedible material. A few of the prisoners were bickering over the pecking order of who eats first, because today they were serving purple jello.

"This is ridiculous, we had a deal, ya imbecile!" A red faced man in his fifties was shouting in a thick southern accent over a quarrel between him and the inmate assigned to lunch lady duty that day, obviously over the choice of meal. "Now gimme what I done paid for!" he advised, slamming his tray against the metal sneeze guard causing a moment of silence throughout the cafeteria.

The inmate looked around and let out an annoyed chuckle before locking eyes with the irate inmate. "You got a lot to learn about da way things work on da inside Jack, Its all about 'espect," the lunch duty felon retorted.

Jack was unsatisfied. "REspect ya idjit! And I'll make you respect my boot in your ass if I don't get the purple jello now, I gave you the cigs fer it!" he snarled through clenched teeth.

"By orders of da warden, I had the last of it sent to a maxer's cell in B-13 earlier this morning," The inmate smiled, flicking a toothpick in his teeth. Maxer was a slang term they used in the prison for the inmates assigned to the maximum security area of the prison. These were usually the roughest people, and they were more than likely in the prison for life.

The elderly man narrowed his eyes at the squirrely, rat like fellow behind the counter. Jack Harding was a shrewd businessman in his earlier life. Because of this, he would not take a "no" for an answer for anything. He was so shrewd, that by the time he was caught by the FBI in Pasadena, they had found over one hundred counts of fraud buried deep within his construction business empire. The only thing that sharper than his eye for business, was his temper. "I heard what you said," Jack leaned in, "I don't care about some maxer's last meal, you owe me! Let me have it!"

"Okay," the man behind the counter retorted. Jack and flinched as the inmate's arm swung in from above, in his fist he swiftly ladled an oversized portion of baked beans onto Jack's lunch tray, it splattered as the brown sludge squished onto his tray causing food particles to fly everywhere, and cover Jack's face. A few of the other inmates in line started chuckling at the sight, while Jack just stood there motionless, his face turning a shade of hot pink.

"An extra helping of BEANS. Now we're even." The inmate sneered through the laughter.

Jack wiped his face, smearing the slimy mess across his forehead. "I'll get you…. This isn't over yet!" Jack growled.

"I'm afraid it is Jack," Said a loud blaring voice from behind. Jack spun around to see a large gorilla-like guard with his baton out patting it against his massive hand. "Now get this line moving!" He boomed smacking his baton against the sneeze guard spattering more juice onto Jack.

Jack dropped his head slightly, his face now bright red with a pulsating vein in the center. He had no friends on the inside, nothing worth trading, no one to buy, and guards were posted everywhere, there was nothing he could do. And he knew it.

Jack slowly trudged his way to a far table to eat his lunch, defeated by the rat lunch guy and the moronic guard, completely dejected. "Soon enough. Soon enough I'll get the hell out of here," he thought.

"That was terribly regrettable, nobody knows how to honor a business agreement," a voice said, across Jack's table. Jack quickly looked up to see a man with thick eyebrows, a slight gap in his teeth and greasy dark brown hair in a short ponytail. He could have sworn the man hadn't been there a moment ago.

"And just who the hell are you making these observations? Isaac Newton?" Jack asked, shoveling some beans into his mouth.

"I'm a man who is tired of this life of confinement," he replied folding his hands together, "Reminiscing about the life I had on the outside has made me…motivated, Mr. Harding."

Jack stopped chewing. "Just how do you know my name?" he inquired.

"I have seen your record. I know how you got here," The man said, grabbing a piece of bread off of Jack's plate. "I have felt the pain, the humiliation that you have endured." The stranger took a large bite of the bread.

"I doubt that very much," Jack responded bluntly, his eyes locked with his present company.

The man smirked. "The 3 Ninjas" he said, mouth full.

Jack's eyes widened as he swallowed, his voice rising in tone. "How'd you know-"

"We're very much alike Jacky." The man replied.

A troubled and uncharacteristically wounded look washed over Jack's face. For some reason he blurted out his story. "They… they RUINED me… I owned that town for YEARS… until one summer I had a minor problem with some of the locals regarding a plot of land I bought for a dump site. I had everything wrapped up. I grabbed the man leading the investigation… put him out of the picture… They broke in… got him out… so, I hired some local mercs to hold the man's daughter as insurance till the investigation was done-"

"That sounds familiar…" said the man as he finished the bread.

"Those three… they took out my bodyguards, my factory workers, the mercs… they even fought through some cops I paid off… Then the whole thing came crashing down…"

Jack suddenly slammed his fist down on the table "THEY RUINED ME!" he repeated, his fist shaking in pain and his face changing color. "And I never even found out who the hell they were!"

The man seemed delighted at Jacks reaction; he chuckled to himself before looking into Jacks eyes and whispering…

"Samuel, Jeffery, and Michael Douglas."

Jack looked up "What? What the hell is this?" He became defensive raising his voice. "Who in the hell are you?!" He stood up, looking around, panicked.

"Sit… down." The man said with an angry look in his eye. Jack slowly returned to his seat. "How is your company doing financially, after that run-in at that Indian village?" The man said inquisitively.

Jack's head hung low. "It…it's in shambles. I will never have a construction business again. At least not under my name, if it hadn't been for…" Jack trailed off because he noticed that the man's smile was growing as he approached the end of his sentence. Jack furrowed his brow and leaned in closer to his newfound friend. "Well, let's just say that what the public saw is now in shambles. Off the record, I have been stashing away millions of dollars into other business accounts all over the U.S."

"Oh?"

"Oh yes, Jacky here is going to be just fine when he gets out." Jack replied, leaning back with a cocky smile. "The problem is," he pointed to himself, "I'm in here…"

"What if in, say, one week… you weren't in here?" The man proposed.

Jack looked around to make sure no one else was listening in, the last thing he needed was a set-up. He stared through the man for about 20 seconds straight sizing him up before a smile crept up his cheek.

"Then, I think I'd make like a ninja myself and disappear…"

Suddenly the men began to converse rapidly, seemingly speaking in their own language.

"Compensation?" The man asked.

"Anything. …Details?" The Jack asked.

"Soon."

Jack's mind was playing tennis, wondering if he was making the right move trusting this stranger.

"Do we have a little business proposition, Jack?"

"I excel at all things business." He grinned, flashing his brown tobacco stained teeth before quickly becoming serious again. "You never told me your name, son."

Snyder extended his open hand across the table and flashed his best business smile. "Inmate # 581901. But you can call me Hugo. Hugo Snyder."


	6. Chapter 5: The Bullies

It was another normal night at Grandpa Mori's cabin. Today was their rest day, so Rocky and Tum Tum were playing a game of checkers in the living room while Colt studied the old map in the kitchen.

"What's with this treasure, Rocky?" Colt asked while holding the old torn map in his hands. Rocky walked over to where Colt was standing and eyed the ancient document as well.

"I don't really know, Grandpa made it seem like a regular old geode to me," Rocky suggested.

"Do you think you can eat it?" Tum Tum asked.

Colt scowled at his little brother's last comment. He was really serious about finding out what the stone that their Grandpa was talking about was used for.

"It's probably a crazy story that Grandpa made up," Rocky reminisced, "He likes to keep us entertained."

"He hasn't had to help us out that much," Colt chuckled, remembering the hijinks and adventures that they somehow always got involved in when they were with Grandpa. He then got saddened, because he remembered that they only had a few more weeks left of summer before they went back home.

"I don't understand why we can't just live up here with grandpa. I mean, we could go to school up here," Colt thought aloud.

"Well, aren't you worried about all of our friends back home? They might kind of miss us, Colt," Rocky advised as he made a move in the checkers game he was involved in. "King me," Rocky said to Tum.

"What friends," Colt complained, "The only people that we seemed to ever run into was that stupid Darren kid, Rocky. And you know that I've come close to kicking his butt every time we see him."

"I know, but if you let him get to you like that so easily, you know that mom and dad will ground you for an entire summer." Rocky was only trying to help Colt, his temper had separated him from his brothers for years. Last summer their father had almost sent him to military school for breaking a lamp over his head by badly executing a yo-yo trick.

Colt turned his head from Rocky and bit his lip in anger. He knew he was right. Over the years had many skirmishes with Darren. In 5th grade he stole his neighbor Emily's bike on the way to school. Later on in middle school it consisted of general bullying, such as Darren slamming Colt's head into his own locker.

_Clang!_

The sound rang in Colt's ears, which started bleeding. Darren had taken a cheap shot when Colt was grabbing some books out of the bottom of his locker. A big hand came up behind him and swung the door to the metal locker as hard as he could into the head that was poking inside it. The resulting scream from Colt was deafening to himself, but everyone else in the school was spared as his cry was muffled by the locker walls.

"What the heck?!" Colt whipped his head around, holding his ears in pain to see who was the source. They were only in middle school at this time, so Colt was only about five feet and four inches tall but a taller athletic boy stood behind him with multitudes of wannabe gangsters at his sides.

"Go ahead," The voice said, which belonged to Darren. He spoke very low, almost in a whisper. Colt should have known. There was no one else at all in his life that gave him this much grief.

Colt immediately got angrier by the moment. It had been years that Darren tortured him in elementary school for no reason. Now that he was older, he felt that it was necessary to teach this bully that he was not the pack leader. Colt's face flushed a deep shade of red as he felt the chilling sensation of his adrenaline being pumped into his blood. Most of the time when this happened when he was younger the rush made him so emotional that he felt near the point of crying; not crying out of fear, but rather out of anger.

This time, one of Darren's chubby cronies spoke up. "C'mon, baby! Let's play a little pin the tail on the horsey!" He said, while adjusting a black trucker cap backwards on his head.

Darren shuffled both his feet. He had plenty more experience in getting into to fights, but was not a more experienced fighter. He squared Colt up as the Colt's veins increased in size and popped out of the skin at his knuckles from his calloused trained hands being clenched into tight fists.

Darren swung his left fist in a sidearm sweep at Colt's face, Colt quickly lashed back and avoided Darren's lazy punch, which looked like it was thrown by a drunk teletubby. Using his momentum against him, Colt pulled Darren's arm back along with his swing, swung his knee directly into Darren's kidney, and causing him to bend over to protect his gut.

"What the hell are you even trying to prove!?" Colt screamed. He was actually controlling his anger quite well for how badly he wanted to pound this moron in. He began to breathe heavily from the excitement of the battle he was easily winning. He had it all calculated out, now that Darren's back was exposed, he prepared to elbow him as hard as he could in his spine, and give him what he had been needing for a long time.

Other people in Pasadena High started noticing the quarrel and began laughing and pointing, while Colt stood in the middle of the hall casually. A young boy pushed his way to the front of the scene and came upon Colt with his arm held high above his head, and a nasty scowl on his face, just as he was about to hit some other kid bent over in front of him.

"Colt! Stop it!" The boy in the crowd yelled. Colt turned his head, It was Rocky. "No fighting!" He screamed at his brother from the sea of students.

Colt scowled at Rocky for telling him what to do. In his distraction, Darren dove at Colt and grabbed his ankles, causing him to trip and slam head first into a drinking fountain next to room 213. A sickening thud was heard as Colt's face hit the wet porcelain.

"Agh!" Colt roared and collapsed onto the ground, holding his head. His anger was building.

"That's right," Darren taunted quietly, but Colt was still recovering from the cheap shot. Darren sniffed and threw a wad of paper at Colt before walking away into the crowd with his cronies behind him. Even though he had technically lost the fight, some girls were staring and smiling at Colt attractively for being able to take such a hit and still be able to stand.

Rocky bent over to help pick up his brother on the ground. "Colt, you have got to remember to stop fighting, this is my last warning before I just give up helping you save yourself," He advised.

Colt threw his arm away from his brother, refusing his help. Colt was enraged at the humiliation he was forced to endure. "Rocky, I never asked you to help me. EVER. In fact, every time you butt in, you make me look like a complete fool!" Colt said, while standing up and wiping his now bleeding lower lip.

"Colt, I'm only doing this because I want to see you around next summer," Rocky implored. He slowly placed a hand on Colt's shoulder to show empathy.

"Whatever," Colt muttered. He was still too young to realize the importance of not using his abilities on anyone weaker than himself. It wasn't until high school that he would mature enough to appreciate Grandpa and Rocky's guidance.

"Are you satisfied now?" Rocky asked.

"Never. Lets go home now. I have to find a way to hide this from dad," Colt said, while pointing to his lip.

"Listen, I'll buy you a slurpee for you on the way home, it'll keep that swelling down."

Colt smirked at Rocky's Grandpa-like qualities. He wasn't such a bad brother after all. "Sure. Good Idea."

_Good idea_, Colt thought. He smiled when he remembered how it would have felt to knock that guy out. Back at Grandpa's cabin, the memory flooded his mind.

Colt snapped out of his nostalgic moment and watched Rocky make his final jump in the checkers game.

"Hey!" Tum Tum yelled, realizing that he had been beaten.

"You just remember, Colt," Rocky said, "We're old enough to know we don't fight like animals."


	7. Chapter 6: Snyder's New Friend

**A/N: If you aren't sure of who Eric/Buzz is, he is the annoying blonde kid that was friends with Rocky in High Noon at Mega Mountain.**

* * *

Snyder was completely fine sitting in his cell in solitary confinement; today however, he was lucky enough to have a conference with his legal team. Two guards were leading him down a long, dimly lit hall with his hands cuffed. The whole entire time Snyder smiled. After his delicious prison issue lunch and making nice with Jack his new frivolous backer to his future operation, his plan was soon to enter phase 3.

The trio turned a corner and one guard swung open a door that appeared at the end of the hall. The smaller guard reached for Snyder's hands to uncuff him.

"No!" yelled the large guard, "When in the company of civilians this maniac is to have his hands bound at all times. Warden's orders."

Snyder sneered. He knew, hands cuffed or not, his present company wouldn't stand a chance.

"You have fifteen minutes Snyder," the other guard warned, "I would make them count."

"Ah, did my lawyer finally send a woman?" Snyder laughed maniacally as he thought of the prospect.

"You're not far off." The guard said taunting Snyder with an even more obnoxious laugh. "Nice legal team, pretty boy, AHAHAHAAHAA!"

Snyder's laughter ended abruptly, what did the guard mean?

One of the guards led Snyder to the small chair sitting at one end of a square table. The room was lit by one low light that hung over the center of the room, and a chair identical to the one he was sitting in sat on the opposite side of the table. Not a moment later after the guard had left the room and slammed the door behind him, a slender young man with well groomed bleached blonde hair walked in. He wore a suit someone his age likely shouldn't be able to afford and was carrying a manilla folder in his right hand.

The man brushed his hands through his hair, which was parted perfectly down the middle. He smiled with a large under bite and the cockiest grin Snyder had seen outside his own reflection. Snyder eyed the young man cautiously as he walked to the opposite side of the room and placed one hand on the other chair. He slapped the folder onto the middle of the small table between them, and continued chewing what appeared to be gum.

This was not Snyder's normal advisor, to Snyder this boy looked like a joke, someone who should be in a Gap Kids commercial. Suddenly the guard's taunt made sense, but he remained slightly confused as to what was happening.

He normally met with Bernard Bummerman from Bum & Bum Law and Associates, who was a middle aged Welsh man with a long blonde ponytail and about one hundred pounds overweight. This individual was too young and thin, it was not him… but the extremely blonde hair looked very familiar.

"Hey, Butthead, I bet you're wondering who I am," the young man said while pulling out his cell phone from his pocket and checking the time while sitting down.

"I know who you are, Eric," Snyder said in a sinister tone.

The young man looked up quickly, a glint of fear in his eye, His voice was shaky. "How'd you-"

"You can learn a lot about a person…" Snyder said, cutting him off, "…by reading his nametag."

The man looked down at his lapel, he was wearing a prison guest badge that read "Eric Bummerman".

He straightened his collar, noisily chewed his gum, and tried to save face. "The thing, is my uncle couldn't make it. The name's Eric, but people call me Buzz. Get that straight and we'll get along just fine."

"Just how old are you?" Snyder asked. Sizing up his company the same as he did with his opponents.

Buzz's attention fell from Snyder back to his phone distracted with texting someone. Obviously a message had caught his eye while he was checking the time. "Old enough. I may be an intern Mr. Snooder, but as of today, I'm your only link to the outside world, so show some respect," He said without making eye contact.

Snyder had never been so instantaneously aggravated by a new acquaintance. "What do you know about respect, you bug…" He muttered through clenched teeth.

"…What?" Buzz said looking up from his phone with a glazed over look peeking through the hair in his eyes.

Despite preconceptions, Snyder knew what the kid had said was true, his lawyer's idiot nephew was now his only connection to the world, and phase 3 would have to lie on his shoulders.

"What exactly did your uncle tell you about me?" Snyder asked.

Buzz quickly shoved his phone back in his pocket and sat down. Opening his folder he began to read slowly, pretending as if he'd had this speech memorized "He told me you're an accused gun launderer… kidnapper, and organized a private army… you're a maxer, life without bail…" he flipped the page.

"… you're a waste of time, a hothead with no chance of suspended sentence," Buzz looked up smugly. "I'm here to sort any outstanding affairs that you have on the outside. I'm good at what I do. If you don't comply with me, I won't help you, simple as that. Remember, at the end of the day, I get to walk out of this place, and you don't."

"I'm not worried about legalities, or this place," Snyder joked as he looked around the room, there were no one-way mirrors.

Buzz continued to chew his gum and stared at Snyder for few seconds. "You really should be giving a shit about this legal 'stuff'. I looked at your sentencing file. They don't let hyenas out of the zoo, only obedient lap-dogs. Putting your first cellmate in a wheelchair isn't going to earn you sympathy with a parole board."

Snyder was growing impatient with his new attorney.

"What do you know about 'the zoo?'" Snyder said with a slight laugh in his response, "You're just a kid."

Buzz raised his voice "Don't call me a kid, butthead! Maybe I'M your new attorney! And you're nothing but a lost cause!" he snapped.

"Is that why they gave me YOU?" Snyder said, enjoying the turmoil on Buzz's face, "Maybe we're both lost causes, mister Buzz."

Buzz seemed to be piecing together Snyder's insight.

"N-no," Buzz stammered with anger, "I-I volunteered to take you on! I love challenges! Have you seen my hair? My life is a challenge. Yet, as you can see, I always end up on top!" Buzz stood up and opened his arms from his sides as if to show how great his whole world was around him.

"In a jail?" Snyder questioned sarcastically, "You're a bad liar Buzzy. You don't want to be here any more than I do." Snyder then raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. "We call that delusions of grandeur. How do you like working for your uncle, Buzzy boy?"

"I-I love it. I love every second of it," While still keeping an eye on Snyder, Buzz began pacing back and forth as he spoke. "It's guys like you I have to defend who don't want to work with me… it's real easy for me to just drop my hands at any time and just say, 'Screw it, this guy's not worth it…'"

Snyder read the kid like a book, and waited to initiate his proposal.

Buzz continued to ramble about his privileged upbringing, almost now trying to convince himself of his own magnificence.

"…I got everything when I was a kid, my dad took me to Mega Mountain every weekend, and my first car was a Lamborghini. Perks of being the relative of the biggest name in Attorney practice in all of Pasedena. Jealous? You should be, Wuss."

By this point, Buzz had grabbed and placed a death grip on the chair in front of him and was twisting, viscously.

"You don't really want to be working for your uncle forever, do you?" Snyder asked. "Living in his shadow? Be honest for once in your life."

Buzz released his tight grip on the chair, squirreled his face, and walked swiftly to the far wall across from his client to where the room operated recording device was located and pressed a button. He turned his head and looked at Snyder, and walked back to the center of the room, and took a seat across from Snyder. "Now what makes you think you can talk to me like that?" Buzz asked, while looking irritated.

"I know determination when I see it. Some call it conceitedness, but you have it, Buzz." Snyder leaned in. "I wouldn't have you as my attorney if my life depended on it, but I do need a man who can get things done for me on the outside. Are you a man, Buzz? Or are you a kid?"

"I'm more of a man than you are," Buzz shot back, sneering his under-bitten smirk, while leaning back in his chair.  
Snyder's eyes slanted, he pursed his lips and leaned closer whispering. "Did your uncle tell you about how I tore out my previous attorney's liver?" He snickered through his nose.

Buzz's gum fell out of his mouth as his jaw dropped, only for a moment. "Very funny Mr. Snooder, I just peed my pants…" Buzz replied in a browbeat voice, heavily sarcastic.

Suddenly Snyder's right arm shot out from behind his back and grabbed Buzz's tie, pulling him onto the table, the pressing his head against the metal with his left arm.

"Call me 'Snooder' one more time and I'm going to THROTTLE YOU TILL YOUR WINDPIPE COLLAPSES…" Snyder growled, completely switching gears.

"I-I thought y-you were CUFFED!" Buzz sputtered, on the verge of screaming.

"That is because you're a brainless little errand-boy!" Snyder said, slamming his now empty cuffs next to Buzz's face.

"Lucky for you, you're exactly what I need right now Mr. Bummerman. I was going to ask this of your Uncle, but it seems to me that you were born to do this."

"W-what'd you have in mind?" Buzz stuttered, sounding legitimately intrigued, albeit terrified.

Snyder released Buzz's head from the table and sat back in his chair, re-cuffing himself. Buzz sat up likewise, his gum now smushed into his tie "Certain people are meant to excel at other things than what they're instructed to do. Me, personally, I love being a bad guy."

Buzz smiled like a little kid watching his first PG-13 movie. He leaned forward and was now holding a pen in his right hand and holding the end lightly against his chin, unwittingly drawing on himself a black ink soulpatch, deep in thought. "And what kind of stuff does a bad guy excel in?"

"Weapons laundering, bribery, and organizing of highly armed and thoroughly trained private military companies."

"And what makes you think I won't just take this confession to the courts?" Buzz said, still trying to win his pissing contest. He pretended to flip through the files in the manilla folder on the table.

"Oh Buzz, Buzz, you little insect. What confession? You turned off the recorder," Snyder laughed.

Buzz leaned back in his seat ignoring the retort. "So where do I come in to all this?"

"Out in the country, a man named Mori Tanaka out has something in his possession that I need you to get for me at any cost. It should be a fairly easy task, if you work by night." Snyder smirked, his plan now in motion. "Let me ask you this. What are you good at, Buzz?" Snyder inquired.

Buzz smiled, overjoyed at the notion of paying himself a compliment. Finally his mind settled on an answer. "I'm good at pissing people off. Made you lose your cool didn't I, Pony-tail?"

"Yes… Well played… Say, if someone were to ask you to assemble a crew of outside guys to accomplish this task, do you think you can handle that?"

"I know just the guy," Buzz grinned, "He's Awesome."


	8. Chapter 7: New Enemies

**A/N: This is an update to the same chapter I did before, but instead of making it two parts, I just made it one chapter. More updates coming soon! More of the 3 Ninjas, (I promise) action, and a little romance! Please RATE and REVIEW.**

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"LAST CALL!"

A thick booming voice silenced all conversations at Jumbo Jordano's Gentleman's Club. The usual amount of after hours bar-goers littered the place, drunk older women that were way past their prime were making their attempts at the college boys hovering over the polished mahogany bar in the middle of the building. Annoying brightly colored lights and signs illuminated the faces of the after hours people. Glasses clinked, people shouted; it was 1:30am on a thursday night, and hard workers relaxed by enjoying the last of the night's cocktails.

An extremely large man leaned back from the microphone and glared at the Friday night regulars. He wore a dirty black cap flipped backwards, accented by a size XXL black T-shirt and sagging jeans. His eyes squinted, fiery, and looking for someone to test him. He scanned over the crowd.

JJ's was a small place with loud neon lights and overly seasoned entertainment. Most local workers hit it up on the way home from the city, sometimes getting lost in time. Usually Friday nights were low-key at JJ's, but there had been talk of late night knife related violence in the LA Entertainment district, thus there was an unusual amount of patrons who'd stuck around late and in a drunken funk, either forgetting or unwilling to leave before dusk. It wasn't his job to see them home safely though, he wanted everyone out. He was a bouncer, and not the kind who made exceptions for losers.

The large man slowly began his rounds, the clients were usually given about 30 minutes to clear out, but to him, the sooner they'd leave, the sooner he'd get to. He waltzed over to one corner where a young guy was making quite a scene. He had noticed that the individual had been going over to different tables where people were sitting, and knocking over their drinks on purpose, just to give them a cheesey smile as he walked away. Currently, He was amidst a group of people that he seemingly didn't know, preaching about the benefits planning a perfect bank heist. The bouncer apparently came upon him in the middle of a rant.

"…I'm just saying, its too easy," the drunk man said while lazily standing up and swiping his hand through his blonde, parted hair. He held a draft beer in his other hand as he stood. "All you would have to do is slowly leak an addictive, non-lethal gas into the bank bathrooms during the day, and as soon as they grow dependent on it, you cut the gas supply! They'll go insane and just shoot the place up themselves!"

The whole group surrounding the young man with the blonde hair roared with laughter, obviously unaware that he was serious in his statements.

"I work for a law firm and I know I would get away with it, even if I got caught. People are idiots, just like those kids that throw rocks at me when I go by the elementary school!" The pseudo-preacher further bragged.

One of the men at a table on his right poked the blonde drunk man in the ribs. "You know, aren't bathrooms already complete houses for obnoxious gases?" The man reached out to a large pepperoni pizza that sat in the middle of the table with his friends, and took a slice. Taking a bite from it and slugging back a swig of a frosty bottle of bud light, he added, "Furthermore, it might make more sense to use an odorless explosive gas, and blow the place sky high, leaving you to raid the bank vault!"

Once again the surrounding area flooded with a hearty laughter from the pure ownage this man had just dealt out. Faltered, the drunken platinum-haired man stared at the pizza-eating man for his insolence. A moment passed before he quickly slapped the pizza slice into the guy's face, and began smearing it violently.

"Hyuk, hyuk! I bet people called you pizza face back in high school, so this is ironic!" the loud drunk assertively shot back.

"My husband!" A lady sitting at the table shouted, while reeling back in fear.

"Out… out now." the bouncer boomed in a large voice, not even needing a microphone at all, towering over the young man.

The young man stopped pouring the beer that he had been dumping down the man's pants and turned around to face his opponent. "What the hell, Fat Albert? Its not even two o'clock yet!" Whined the skinny drunkard. It was quite obvious who'd had one too many.

"Who're you Cinderella? Getchyo ass out my face." The large man replied pushing the lanky blonde guy aside like he were a child, sending him stumbling into a table of drunk businessmen.

"Naw, I'm the weatherman! High chance of showers heading in!" sneered the drunk as he threw his plastic cup, showering him with coke and cheap rum. "Recycle that Dawson!

He slowly turned around. "My gym teacher used to call me Dawson…"

"Whadja do, eat him?!" Buzz remarked. The businessmen at the table behind the drunkard roared with laughter.

"…People who don't like getting hurt call me Awesome." The man replied, his large voice being drowned by continuous laughter. "That's it," He said to himself. He grabbed the drunk's popped collar and twisted it tightly around his fist. He lifted the man up in his arms, choking him. "I've been itching to toss me a rummy, time for you to help me scratch that itch!"

"W-wait! WAIT!" The man bargained.

"Do I look like a waiter?" Awesome sneered, continuing to force the man out.

The back door to JJ's flew open, Awesome oozed through the frame dragging the scrawny babbling drunk with him into the alley. Awesome swung around quickly and using his momentum swept the man off his feet sending him spiraling downward into some metal garbage bins.

"You ain't even 21, white-boy. Why do I see yo ass in here all the time?" Awesome said looking at the man's wallet, which had been forcibly removed from his pants moments earlier. "The hell kinda name is 'Bummerman' anyway?"

Buzz was keeling over trying to regain his composure and reclaim his knocked out air. "…Y-you're… perfect…"

"Whadju say?" Awesome barked back.

"You're… Dawson Reed? 'Awesome' Dawson, right?" Buzz said, holding back vomit, and breathing heavily.

"What? Yo kid, who the hell are you, how do you know that name?" Awesome said inquisitively.

"_You're_ the one holding my license, idiot. I'm Buzz Bummerman!"

"That ain't what this says…" said Awesome double checking.

"Forget that, just call me Buzz. I went to your high school. Well, I was two grades down, we didn't really know each other but…" Buzz trailed off, rising to his feet and dusting himself off.

Awesome threw the wallet at Buzz's feet and began to walk inside. "I ain't got time for dis, don't you come 'round here again, you Disney prince looking punk."

"You're a Bounty Hunter right?" Buzz said, still tipsy.

Awesome stopped. "Yeah… breaking bad more or less, what's it to you?"

"I work for someone… powerful… and he needs some things done."

* * *

"Can you please tell me why you took me to this stupid minor league baseball game?" Buzz whined while popping cracker jacks in his mouth by flinging them 5 feet in the air and catching them with his big mouth. Buzz had explained the details of the job that Snyder had given him to Awesome, and after a bit of coaxing, he agreed. Luckily for Buzz he was in a bit of financial trouble at the moment.

After the initial agreement and they had made their claims on how much money each would be taking, Awesome made a suggestion to follow him to meet a third person to join them. He had taken Buzz to a minor league baseball game that was finishing up in the LA Mustangs stadium.

"Trust me, dis guy's worth it. I used to roll with this guy back in the day. We've been through a lot of murky stuff together, and let me tell you…he's a hardened dude."

Buzz stopped eating the cracker jacks and instead began to throw them at the head of the guy sitting in front of him in the stands. The elderly man swiped his head before turning around and giving Buzz an angry look. Buzz just responded by sticking his tongue out.

"We don't even need another guy, we can take these wimps out ourselves, I'm telling you man," Buzz said to Awesome.

"Nah man, it…its more than dat. Dis is, how do I say…personal." Awesome responded, while nodding his head onto the baseball diamond in front of them. Buzz looked out onto the field and observed the pitcher on the mound.

The pitcher, Darren Slice, was an athletic six foot two, and he wore a white and red striped baseball uniform. Underneath a red Mustangs cap housed his longer dirty blonde hair that was tucked in a small ponytail in the back. Most of his own friends barely even spoke to him, as he was a man of few words. Over time, other members of his baseball team gave him the name of Rooster for the unique stance he had when pitching.

Rooster turned his cold blue eyed gaze back onto the batter. He squared up his target in a matter of seconds. Five foot eleven. Low center of gravity. RBI of .563. Left handed. Right hanging split curve ball. Rooster threw his final pitch, and watched as the leather bound ball streaked right past the batter, who swung way too late.

"Strike three!" The umpire yelled, while signaling the batter out. The game was won. The pitcher walked over to the dugout, grabbed his equipment and headed into the locker rooms with the rest of the team.

Back in the stands, Buzz and Awesome had waited for the entire stadium to clear out before moving. It was not until then that Awesome signaled Buzz to get up and follow him to the locker room.

When they arrived at the door to the team locker room, Buzz looked confused. "Are you sure we really need this guy? I mean he is normal, right?"

"Normal as'n arsonist at a bonfire."

Buzz gave an awkward glance to his partner before following him by crossing the doorway into the locker room. Right as they entered, a large wooden bench flew into the adjacent wall on their right and smashed into pieces.

"Woah," Awesome said to the entire locker room, "Someone was a little too close, they must want to die tonight." He looked ahead and saw one lone athletic figure standing at the other end of the locker room. "Rooster!" he shouted after the man.

Rooster screwed up his face in an angry fashion and picked up a baseball glove. Chucking it as hard as he could towards the door, the brown leather glove splatted against the front of Awesome's face with precision.

"Ow!" Awesome shouted in pain while slapping the baseball equipment from his face.

"Huah, huah, huah! Looks like you're a brown catch 22!" Buzz added, while laughing.

"Shut up!" His partner shouted in anger for not helping the situation. He took off after Rooster at the back of the locker room and found himself being pelted by baseballs, he had found more things to throw at Awesome.

"Roost! OW!" Awesome shouted in pain as a baseball nailed him in the leg, and then bounced off his cheek. "Dude, we need to talk!

When Awesome got right up next to Rooster, Rooster panicked and opened up a locker, slamming it in Awesome's gut, and making him shout in pain again. Rooster was obviously not listening. He continued to drag an athletic bag throughout the rows of lockers in the room and throw baseballs at Awesome and Buzz as they came closer. When Rooster ran out of baseballs, he turned behind him and found a bin full of steamed towels, and began flopping them in their direction.

"What the hell, man? I thought you said he was normal!" Buzz complained, while slapping a towel off of his face.

Awesome spit as he threw a towel off from his shoulder. "Well he was! Back in high school, before-"

"-Before what?" Buzz yelled while still running after their assailant.

Awesome did not have a chance to respond, because Rooster had switched to a new tactic. Going to the closest wall to him, he grabbed a drinking fountain and pulled it from the wall with all his might. A cracking sound was heard as the plumbing exited the wall and broke free, causing water to go shooting everywhere.

The soaked Rooster then ran up and dropped the porcelain sink on Awesome's toe.

"Aghh!" Awesome cried out, while falling to the ground and getting drenched from the water that was expanding across the floor and dripping from the ceiling, "Roost, you're a cheap sink fighter! Grr! Buzz! Get him!"

Rooster turned around to scamper away again but Buzz was one step ahead of him. Rooster came face to face with Buzz, and his big, underbitten smile right in front of him. In his hands he held a twisted up, wet towel.

Hope you're Egyptian and like cotton, because this is one hundred thread count, you son of a_ pitch!_" Buzz quipped. Rooster tried running the opposite way, but Buzz threw the towel around his neck and began choking the athlete out.

"Dat's how you do it, boi," Awesome commented as he got up from the ground and walked over to them. Rooster began struggling immediately, but he was stopped by Awesome's strength holding his arms still. "Listen, man, can you be calm now?" Awesome asked. Rooster seemed to stop struggling and just stared angrily at Awesome, grabbing desperately at the tightened wet towel around his neck.

"Now-" Awesome started, but was cut off because Rooster started flailing again. Awesome had enough. He gave Rooster one swift knee to the groin, and two baseballs fell out from Rooster's right pant leg.

It took another ten minutes of coaxing from Buzz and Awesome before they calmed Rooster down enough to let him go. Water was still leaking all over the floor, metal locker doors were dented and hanging off of their hinges, and miscellaneous wet towels and baseball equipment littered the room. It looked as though Rambo had just stormed the bathroom to take a dump.

Buzz and Awesome sat in front of Rooster on two opposite benches in the locker room. Rooster just kept a silent stare at the duo before them. He was still breathing heavily from the struggle, and was wiping his face from the sweat and water that soaked him all over. He had given the two a run for their money, but he had run out of steam.

Awesome shifted his weight on the bench to get more comfortable, and a loud cracking sound was heard from the seat. Buzz held onto the sides of the wall just in case it broke."So Roost," Awesome started, "I bet you're wondering why we gathered you here."

Rooster just maintained his neutral look at the two. Buzz tilted his head towards Awesome sitting on his left, while never taking his eyes off of Rooster. "What's his problem?" Buzz whispered behind a cupped hand.

"Nothin'," Awesome whispered to his right, "He's just a few bases short of a grand slam, if you know what I mean."

Rooster widened his eyes and shot Awesome a dirty look.

"Roost…" Awesome went to grab his friend's hand that sat across from him, but Rooster pulled away. He caressed his own arm as if Awesome had done some insulting action to it. "I…I'm sorry that I let you down."

Rooster looked back at Awesome with one eye as if to say, "…_and?_"

"…and I'm sorry I told yo' mommy to spank you in tenth grade, I didn't know that she was actually going to do it."

Rooster continued to stare.

"Listen. I wanna bring back our old times. I know things have changed since we dropped out of high school, but I have a great idea to bring us up to speed. Tonight, midnight. I'll pick you up at ten. Be ready for a quick triple toss," Awesome instructed Rooster.

Rooster looked back at Awesome and Buzz and shot them an evil smirk. A triple toss meant there were three people to beat down tonight, and Rooster was fully prepared to brawl.

* * *

A/N: If you haven't gotten it already, "Awesome" is the big bully from the orignal 3 ninjas who they played basketball against.


	9. Chapter 8: Curiosity

**A/N: I have the next chapter done, but I'm not planning on uploading it until I get about 3 more comments and 2 more follows/favorites! Have to keep you guys on a cliffhanger for a while!**

* * *

Plate upon plate was stacked in the drying rack, making a _clink_ noise each time they were set. Colt had gotten in trouble again for making another cheeky comment during dinner, so he was finishing up washing the dishes while Rocky and Tum Tum got ready for bed. His punishment did not go without supervision; Grandpa was sitting in the den reading a novel until he finished. As he washed his hands, he said goodnight to grandpa, and headed off to bed.

Colt climbed the stairs slowly after his long day. When he got up there, Rocky and Tum Tum were both already in bed trying to go to sleep. He slowly crawled over Tum Tum and joined them.

* * *

Colt had been sitting in bed for about two hours, and couldn't fall asleep. It was midnight, and his mind was on other things. Plus, lot of times he found it difficult to fall asleep the day before they were going back to their home in the city, he liked spending time with grandpa way too much.

Colt turned over, trying to get comfortable so he could get at least get one hour of sleep that night. He flipped over, and turned towards Rocky in the bed they all slept in. As he did, he noticed Rocky was wide awake also. His arms were outstretched behind his head looking up at the ceiling, obviously in deep thought.

"Rocky, are you having trouble sleeping too?" He asked.

Rocky turned to Colt. "Could you tell?" He said, while still staring at the ceiling.

"Yeah, I can't sleep at all. I can't stop thinking about that map that grandpa showed us earlier this week."

Rocky turned to meet Colt's gaze. "Really? I thought I was nervous about going back to school, but…you're right. I thought about that thing several times since grandpa had shown us. I just can't seem to get it out of my mind. I mean, I don't really believe in the whole healing mystical powers of this stone, but I want to see it for myself, you know?"

Colt's mouth opened when he was about to respond, but suddenly he heard movement from behind him. He turned over. "Is that you Tum? Are you still up?"

"Yeah," The small voice said behind him.

"Are you thinking what we're thinking?" Rocky asked.

"I think so," Tum Tum said, while fiddling with something in front of him, it was making crinkling noise.

"What do you have there, Tum?" Colt questioned.

Tum Tum outstretched his hand over to Colt's face. "Jelly beans. I was having trouble getting them out of the bag."

Rocky and Colt both grumbled in anger, because they knew that their brother was not still awake for the same reasons as them. Colt pushed his brother's candy filled hand away from his face and punched him lightly on the arm.

Colt sat up and turned to Rocky. "Let's just do it Rock," he said, "This is our last week here anyway."

Rocky smiled as he entertained the idea for a second before agreeing. All three of the boys got up from the bed and slowly crept down the stairs of their grandfather's cabin. They were going to find that jewel. Six feet silently made their way down the small spiral staircase. Just as they were taught, no trace was left of their movement.

When they all reached the bottom, Colt opened the screen door very slowly for his brothers to follow through. Rocky slipped through the doorway as soon as the door was opened. Tum Tum lazily walked over to the counter where their Grandpa had set the map down when they had finished dinner. He rolled the old paper up and stuck it in his waistband for safe keeping, and walked over to the pantry to grab an oreo for the walk.

Finally, all three of the boys were outside. The moon was fortunately on their side this night, because it was bright enough for them to see without needing a flashlight. Staying in the shadows, Rocky led the trio though the back forest of their grandfather's cabin. He stopped underneath a large tree about one hundred feet from the cabin. The cottage was still in view, and he waited until he saw the light from his grandfather's room window go out before he moved any further. He looked towards Colt and Tum Tum, who were laying down on the ground on the opposite side of the open area between them about fifty feet away, beside some smaller fir trees. He signaled them to move.

The three came together again at the large tree and continued forward. In front of them they came upon the a favorite sparring location of theirs, the fallen tree. This was an openly wooded area with a tree trunk that had fallen over a small gulley. Colt would often train with Grandpa on this tree, using it as a balance beam, which made it extremely hard to keep your concentration without falling. Rocky stopped just before the trunk and brought his two brothers in close.

"Okay Tum, where does the map say we go first?" Rocky asked.

"How should I know?" Tum Tum said while still finishing up the cookie he had in his mouth. He lifted his pajama top to reveal the aged roll of paper in his waistband and pulled it out with one hand, holding it out in front of his brothers. Rocky reached for it, but Tum Tum was too quick. He snapped his hand back to his side, clutching the paper.

"If I let you see it, you have to include me in the reward," he said, slowly looking up at Rocky.

"What reward?"

"The reward of being able to say we found it. Every time we do something crazy like this, I feel like you guys always exclude me from the story later."

Rocky and Colt shared a puzzled look, but understood what their brother was saying. "That's fine Tum. I'm sorry if we made it seem that way," Rocky said apologetically.

"Yeah, we'll make sure we'll credit you as Tum Tum the Eat-Alone kid," Colt added.

"Shut up, moron," Tum Tum said as he handed the map to Rocky and all three boys studied the markings on it as he unrolled the corners. It had four distinct markings on it being used often: circles, squares, dots, and an X. Amongst the many circles on the map there were more dots in between them. At the very top of the map, a single X lay next to a few dots.

"There doesn't seem to be any pattern to this, I thought grandpa said this was a simple map," Colt complained.

"Quiet Colt, I think I'm getting this," Rocky replied.

"Hey, these circles look like those trees we were hiding behind until Grandpa's light went out," Tum Tum pointed out. The four circles looked nothing like trees, but they were arranged just like the trees they had used for cover: One giant tree that Rocky hid behind, and the three smaller ones that Colt and Tum Tum laid nearby across the clearing.

"Hey, I think he's right, these dots in between kind of look like the fallen tree," Colt noticed.

"Well, if that's right, it looks like we're walking the correct path," Rocky said, "I'm assuming that the dots equal some sort of measurement. Colt? How many steps do you think it took you guys to pass the clearing?

"I'd say it was more than twenty, at least double. So, probably around forty something," Colt explained.

"Yeah that's about what I thought too. There are five dots on the map going from the area that looks like the clearing to the big tree." Rocky replied.

"I would bet anything that each dot is equal to ten paces. Tum, you got it! You're really earning your keep," Colt praised.

"Told you they were circle trees," Tum Tum quipped.

"Shut up, guys. It says now we have to go another eighty paces going across the fallen tree," Rocky advised as he led the way.

They headed deeper and deeper into the forest, following the dots and circles until they came upon the area that they assumed was where the X pointed to. The area they were in was so thick with trees that they had a hard time seeing where they went. They had pried over every bush and every rock to find anything that looked suspicious, but found nothing.

"I give up," Rocky sighed, while taking a seat on a small boulder nearby, "I don't think we're ever going to find it."

Colt stopped and leaned on a skinny tree nearby. He looked around the area, which was a large circular clearing surrounded by heavy foliage. "What should we do with this thing when we find it, Rock?" He asked.

"I'm not sure, I kinda just wanted to see what it looked like."

"Maybe we should give it to amanda to look at, I mean she's all into that science-y stuff anyway," Tum Tum suggested. Amanda was the kids' neighbor back at home in the city. She had come with them to Mega Mountain for Tum Tum's birthday one year, and told them that she designed props and weapons for people in the film industry. These weapons helped the three boys when they got mixed up with a mentally ill woman by the name of Medusa, who tried taking over the park and stealing a lot of money the day they were there. In the end, they defeated Medusa's army and Amanda became an invaluable friend.

Rocky buried his face in his hands. "Amanda is away at that special school, remember? That's why she couldn't train with us anymore."

"Yeah, but I figure that we could mail it to her or something," Tum Tum tried again, placing his hands behind him and nosing his right toe in the dirt.

"I wouldn't want to risk something so important to grandpa by throwing it in a mailbox. Besides, She's probably way too busy to deal with little things like this," Rocky answered. Tum Tum just shrugged, knowing Rocky was probably right.

Colt reached up and grabbed a leaf from a low hanging branch to play with, and then he noticed something. There was one small opening in the trees where the moonlight shone through. Where the light fell upon on the ground there was an odd, square-looking rock, which Colt walked over to investigate, and froze in place.

"What is it?" Rocky asked, obviously noticing his brother's odd movement. He stood up and walked over to where Colt stood and looked at the rock. The thing was that this was no ordinary boulder: It was perfectly square, and carved out of polished marble. This was a tombstone.

"Oh my god," Rocky gasped. The front of the marker had read the name _Pamela Mae Tanaka_, the name of their grandmother that had passed away before the boys were even born.

"Rocky, you realize who this is, right?"

"Yes."

"Well what do we do?"

"Let's just dig right here," Tum Tum suggested.

"We can _not_ dig our grandma's grave up," Colt growled.

"Oh, yeah I guess you're right," Tum Tum thought for a minute, "Rocky, why don't we just put a picture of Jo on the ground right here? Colt will get so embarrassed he'll punch the picture and then we'll find out what's under there."

"You can stuff it, little jerk!" Colt leaped at Tum Tum, whose eyes widened as colt got closer, but he was blocked by Rocky, who tripped Colt in the process.

"Ahh!" Colt screamed as he grabbed Rocky on the way down.

"Hey, what are you doing!" Rocky yelled as he fell onto Tum Tum behind him. The pile of the three boys landed onto the small tombstone, knocking it over.

"Look what you made me do, Rock," Colt said, while brushing himself off.

"Guys look!" Tum Tum was crouching over the upturned tombstone.

Rocky and Colt looked at the spot which the tombstone used to lay upright. The square marble figure was hollowed out on the bottom, and a medium sized green gem was being housed within it.

Tum Tum picked up the newly found stone that was laying there. It was a vibrant color of jade, and it gleamed brilliantly in the moonlight, almost as if it was glowing. The gem itself had been cut and polished too, so that it was oblong and had triangular angles that came to a point on both ends, like a diamond. They had found what the map was directing them to.

"We'll take that," a high pitched, annoying voice said from behind them.


	10. Chapter 9: The Triple Duo

All three kids all reeled back in the direction of the voice.

Behind them, in the open area, three older boys ranging from 18 to 23 years old stood in the open area. All of them were much bigger than the three ninjas, so Rocky was taken aback.

The biggest one on the right was a gigantic black man, who wore a backwards trucker cap. He folded his large arms across his chest to match his even larger belly. He stood at about six foot and was fifty percent muscle, fifty percent pure fat weight. Rocky remembered this one as "Awesome" Dawson Smith. He and Colt once beat him up in elementary school for stealing people's bikes on the way to school.

The middle individual was leaner, and was wearing a baseball uniform. Colt had recognized him in an instant. Even though he had not seen him in years, he was sure that it was Darren. Darren had dropped out of school when he failed junior year for the fourth time, and now it looked like he was doing what he liked doing for extra money on the side.

Lastly, The one on the Left was tall and skinny, had blonde hair and large teeth that sat in an underbite. He seemed to be their leader, and had been the one that called out to them. Rocky felt that the boy, who looked to be a little older than him was familiar.

"That's right butthead, remember me? That's right, Eric Bummerman back in action!" The blonde boy explained. Rocky was surprised. He and his brothers had met Eric a few years back at a gathering at Mega Mountain. Rocky didn't know him too well, he was more of friend of his friends that happened to show up that day.

"You still need a haircut, Buzz," Colt shot back.

"Give us the stone!" He reiterated. The other two had still not spoken, or moved.

Tum Tum looked at the shiny stone in his hands. It was so special to his grandpa, so he couldn't even think about giving them the jewel.

"No, I can't do it," Tum tum said as he held the stone to his chest. He turned around and started running as fast as he could into the forest, away from the three goons.

"Then you're gonna die, buh-heads!" Buzz yelled after Tum Tum. He slapped Rooster on his right shoulder. "Roost! Let's go get 'im!"

Immediately, Rooster started bolting towards the ninjas with Buzz fast on his heels.

"Let's do it Colt," Rocky commanded. Colt nodded in agreement. Both boys widened their bases while holding out both their hands in a kata stance. By this time, Buzz and Rooster were almost up to them both, and were going to attempt to run right past them. This was not going to happen. There was a five foot gap between Rocky and Colt, and when Rooster and Buzz attempted to run through the gap, both ninjas wound up and executed a simultaneous powerful left and right leg kick to each of their opposer's stomachs.

"Ahh!" Buzz screamed while rolling on the ground, "That hurt!"

Rooster had doubled over in pain, but did not speak a word. He gathered his strength and stood over Colt, who remained in his stance. Both boys glared at each other.

"Don't worry about him, Buzz. I got the preppy boy," Awesome shouted to his partner who was standing near Rocky. Buzz took this chance to run off in Tum Tum's direction, while Awesome stomped over to the three others.

When Awesome got close to Rocky, the four boys circled each other for a while, until Rocky and Colt were facing Awesome and Rooster in front of each other. It was an old fashioned standoff.

The two ninjas did not give the bullies a chance to act first. Colt ran behind Rocky, while Rocky bent down a little, and Colt jumped off Rocky's back to get more air and surprised the two enforcers with an explosive split leg kick that connected with both of their faces.

Awesome and Rooster shook the pain off while one of them took a swing at Colt as he landed behind them, but it was too late. Awesome's canned ham fist struck nothing but air. Rocky then used this clumsy move to his advantage: he darted up to the large individual as his missed fist was coming around his right side. He grabbed the large, swinging forearm in one motion and used his momentum against him by throwing his arm over his shoulder, causing Awesome to do a somersault over Rocky's back. A large dirt-cloud was stirred up when he landed and gasped for air.

"Hai-Ya!" Colt swept his left leg on the ground in a clockwise formation, connecting with Rooster's ankle, causing him to fall down. Colt did not spare a moment when the baseball player fell. He ran up and performed a front flip with his right leg extended, and slammed it on Rooster's laying exposed sternum. Rooster growled in pain.

Tum Tum was running as fast as he could, but he was running out of energy very quickly. He hadn't eaten in the last twenty minutes, so things were starting to blur, and he wasn't able to think straight. He quickly darted behind a large tree trunk when he believed he was far enough away that Buzz did not know where he was. Tum Tum was fairly certain he could fool him for a while, as he knew the forest around his grandfather's cabin better than Buzz, and he had tried to be fairly quiet. His heart, however, was racing. He felt safe for a while, if he was lucky.

"Ha ha ha ha! You think you've got a chance?" a voice said in the darkness. Tum Tum gasped and stood up.

Tum screamed at the figure as it came into the light. Buzz was carefully edging towards Tum Tum, since he backed him into a corner of a large rock formation that looked like a wall of a large hill. There was nowhere for Tum to go. He looked everywhere for a way out as he tightly gripped the stone in his right hand. It was almost impossible to hide, since it seemed to be glowing even brighter than before.

"Just give it to me, Tum-Sucker, that will make this a whole lot easier. You look like you could use another meal. Isn't that what you want, you little baby? Wouldn't you just love to go back to your little grandpy's cottage and make yourself some toast? Try a diet, you rotund blubber!"

Buzz dove forward to grab the young boy but Tum Tum turned and ran up the side of the rock face behind him.

"What the?!" Buzz yelled as he watched Tum Tum use his forward momentum to run three steps up the vertical stone wall and spring off, doing a complete backflip. Tum Tum watched his legs come back around, and when Buzz's big parted hair came into sight, he kicked both of his feet forward with all of his might.

"Ai-ya!" Tum Tum screamed and a loud Crack was heard. Tum Tum had connected directly with Buzz's neck, sending him sprawling forward and smashing his face into the rock wall.

"Ow, you breadbasket!" Buzz agonized in pain. He was holding his face while he stood up. "You're dead, little shrimp. I hope your mom bought you enough pampers, because I'm going to make you pee your pants!"

Tum Tum knew that Buzz had a much longer reach than he had, so he had to do something. He quickly ran up to the nearest tree, grabbed a low hanging branch, and snapped it off. It wasn't much, but he knew that it would help.

"My grandpa found this stone, so its his. I'm not letting you have it," Tum Tum warned, while holding up the stick like a sword.

Buzz grinned and stepped toward Tum Tum. As he stepped forward, Tum whacked Buzz on the thigh with the stick, causing Buzz to reel back. Buzz then attempted a fast right hook, but Tum Tum again delivered a lightning fast hit to his hand, making him draw back his fist and howl in pain. Buzz stood there shaking the pain from his hand, and Tum Tum went on the offensive. Three sharp snaps from the makeshift sword were heard when Tum Tum hit his kidneys. Another three were heard as he hit his right armpit.

Buzz was doubling in pain, and backed himself up to a tree. He swiveled around to the other side in order to gain a distance between the evil child with the stick, but it was of no use. He popped his head out from the left side of the trunk and was rewarded with a smack to the head. He tried the right. Another hit.

"Ouch! Dude, cut that out! My dad will sue the tar out of you!" Buzz complained. He poked his head out from behind the tree trunk again to see where Tum Tum was, but he saw nothing but foliage and forestry going on for quite a distance. He felt a slight tug on his shirt from below, and he turned around to face the movement.

"Hi," Tum Tum said. He reeled his arms back and smacked Buzz in the throat with the other end of the stick, which was much thicker. Buzz started coughing and holding his throat as he fell to the ground.

Meanwhile, Rocky was still giving the royal treatment to Awesome. Two fast punches and a kick had nailed the large man in the chest. Awesome had felt like he had been attacked with a lead pipe.

"Aiya!" Rocky bounded forward and landed a kick directly in the center of the human black hole's enormous gut, causing him to wretch forward in pain.

"Oof!" the large beastly man fell to the ground which shook when he struck.

Behind Rocky, Colt toyed with Rooster. He dodged his head to the right to avoid a left punch from Rooster. He dodged left to avoid the opposite fist that followed soon after. Colt stopped and smiled, while Rooster spat on the ground in fury. It was obvious that he was getting frustrated.

Colt used his trademark speed to deliver a double punch to Rooster's side, and finishing with roundhouse kick to his chest, causing him to go flying back about ten feet. Colt dusted his hands off and turned to check back on Rocky. He had felt as though Darren had enough.

Just as he started walking towards Rocky, who had just finished off Awesome, he sensed something behind him. He quickly ducked, and a small white object zipped by his head at incredible speed, missing his face by inches. Rooster had gotten back up, and resorted to throwing baseballs at Colt. He was, however, throwing them pretty well since Colt had almost been hit by the last one.

Colt saw that Rooster had two more in his hand. He took off directly toward the baseball player, just as two more balls were flung at him. Colt jerked to the right to avoid the first projectile while still running. The second one was thrown pretty low (probably meant to hit his genitals) so a simple hop over it avoided any problem. He had not noticed that Rooster had thrown a bat at head height lastly, so he reacted quickly by sliding onto his knees and bending back. The bat went spinning and flying over his head._ Man he throws hard_, Colt thought while still sliding. In one swift movement, Colt kicked one leg up and connected with his opponent's balls.

"Ahh!" Rooster exclaimed while falling to the ground. He was finished. Rocky and Colt turned to where Tum Tum had run to address a noise he had heard.

"You're going to pay for that!" Buzz screamed while running from the forest from whence he came. He was holding his throat and constantly looking behind him as he ran past Rocky and Colt. Rooster and Awesome shuffled back up and stood next to Buzz in a line.

"Lets attack them all at once, they can't stop us all together!" Buzz suggested, slapping his hand to Awesome's chest. The three ninjas snapped to their defensive stances immediately and waited for their attack, but none came.

Boom. A thick smoke filled the night air in front of the trio of bullies, temporarily blinding them.

"Hey, what the…?"

"Shoot!"

"Ach!"

The three ninjas looked quizzically at the strange scene before them. When the smoke cleared, they saw that all three of the enemies had been tied up around their ankles and wrists with rope.

"This isn't over yet, the fun's just beginning!" Buzz angrily yelled over his shoulder as he and his teammates hopped back through the forest, feet tied together. Rocky, Colt and Tum Tum watched as they slowly disappeared through the foliage in the distance.

"What just happened?" Tum Tum asked Rocky.

"I don't know, Tum," Rocky said as he glanced around for a sign of the source.

"Ah hah hah ha…" A familiar laugh was heard from above the boys. They looked up to see their grandfather sitting in a very high tree branch over where the bullies once stood.

"Grandpa!" All three boys shouted with excitement.

Their grandpa pushed himself off of the branch and landed on the ground in front of them.

"Grandpa how'd you know we were here?" Rocky asked.

"Because of one small reason," Mori said, while reaching his hand into his shirt pocket and pulling out a tiny object. The three boys came in closer to see that he was holding one of Tum Tum's bright pink jellybeans. "This was on the staircase."

The boys slumped in shame for being caught. They had thought they did a good job of sneaking out, but it seems their grandfather was always catching their mistakes.

"We're sorry, Grandpa," Rocky said apologetically.

"Its alright boys. I'm just glad that none of you were hurt. You didn't happen to know any of those young punks, did you?"

"Well actually…" Colt started, "We kind of used to go to school with them before. We have no idea why they were here, but I think they just wanted to try and pick on us one last time or something."

"Colt, it kinda sounded like they wanted to cream us for the-" Tum Tum started, but was stopped mid-sentence when Rocky jabbed Tum Tum in the ribs. He did not want their grandfather knowing they had found the jewel without him.

"That is okay. I don't believe they will be bothering us any time soon anyway," Grandpa reassured them.

"Yeah, I can't believe the smoke bomb trick worked on them," Colt added.

"It always works when done right. Either way. Lets go home before I forget how to get back." Grandpa laughed.

Rocky, Colt and Tum Tum fell at their grandfather's side and walked their way back to the lone cabin in the woods.


	11. Chapter 10: Escape

**A/N: Ask and you shall receive. Shout out to 10pandasrule10 for requesting a chapter update! As always, Rate and Review!**

* * *

It was a lot more comfortable in Snyder's new cell. They had finally granted him his request for a cell in the minimally supervised section of the prison, rather than the the usual one in section B-13. His cellmate was a short stocky man by the name of Brewster.

It was too easy to knock out Brewster and leave him in the top bunk where Snyder slept and just waited. A new security guard was making the usual four o'clock rounds by checking the cells for any suspicious activity in bloc C-10. He walked down the hallway with his nightstick in hand, rattling it against the cell doors as he walked by.

"What?" the guard questioned the cell that Snyder had been transferred to earlier that morning. There was no one in the lower bunk where his cellmate slept. The guard quickly whipped out his ring of keys to investigate further. Turning the correct key in the lock, he ripped open the steel door and ran over to the rumpled covered body he saw in the top bunk. Stopping at the figure under the sheets, he noticed the odd shape of the form. There was definitely something wrong here. He pulled the sheets back and gasped.

"What the heck?!" He exclaimed. It wasn't Snyder in his bunk. This was his cellmate!

Brewster smacked his lips and stretched, he was just waking up. "Did I fart too much, Snyd?"

_Shit_. The guard swiveled around to run out and report the escape, but was greeted by Snyder, who was standing in the doorway.

"Ha ha ha ha…perhaps you should keep your head up more often." Snyder laughed. He assumed a basic martial arts stance by reaching his left hand palm forward and right hand by his side with all his fingers close together, pointed as straight as a board. With a quick explosion of power, he snapped his right arm forward and jammed his hand into the guard's one weak spot, his throat. The guard gargled and held his now closed esophagus. One more quick punch from Snyder knocked him out for good, and he took the next five minutes to switch out their uniforms. Thankfully it got very dusty in Pasadena Correctional, so a lot of the guards wore bandanas to cover up their mouth and nose from suffering.

"Am I getting a new roommate?" Brewster asked.

Snyder took the billy club from his new security guard's belt and hit former cellmate as hard as he could across the forehead. Brewster began snoring again, and he put the final touches by pulling up the blanket around the guard he shoved into the lower bunk. Slamming the door to the cell behind him, he ran out to the hallway and scanned the cell numbers. Keeping a fast pace, Snyder ignored the yells of profanity and spit that was flung at him from the other inmates, obviously thinking that he was the real guard. He made a swift left turn and headed down the new hallway until finally he stopped. In section A-9 a gray haired man stood in the middle of his cell. Snyder had found Jack Harding as planned.

Jack turned around and looked at the fake prison guard."You didn't happen to bring that girly magazine I requested, didja, ya idiot," He said.

Snyder responded by pulling up the ring of keys from his side and opening the large grated steel door to his cell. Jack was obviously unaware of who the guard really was.

"Well, whatdyawant, ya idiot?"

Snyder smacked Jack right across the jaw with his fist, causing him to pass out. The man went limp, and Snyder caught him in his arms, slowly dragging him out of the cell and into the hallway. Taking out the ring of keys, he opened a custodial closet that was near the cell. Snyder scanned the contents of the small room until he finally found what he was looking for.

"Perfect," Snyder said to himself. He pulled out a steel wheelchair and un-collapsed it. He dragged the lifeless man to the chair and sat him in. Wheeling him down the hallway at a non-conspicuous pace, he was stopped at the security checkpoint, which was manned by two mean looking guards.

"Halt!" one guard yelled to Snyder still in disguise. "Where's he headed?" The guard tipped his rifle barrel slightly at the unconscious Jack in the emergency wheelchair.

"ICU. This man drank too much of his own toilet wine, and passed out. Got a nasty gash from hitting the steel side of his bed."

"Go on through," The guard said, while stepping aside.

Snyder casually wheeled Jack through the security checkpoint, past the metal detectors. While coming on the other side, the alarm went off. Snyder froze in place, attempting not to panic.

"Dang machine always goes off for our badges. Go on through, I'll turn it off." The other security guard offered.

"You're a peach," Snyder thanked. Continuing to the side entrance to the prison, he passed one more guard. It was going to be this easy, he thought. Jack stirred in his seat a little as they made a wide pass from the other guard. The passing officer noticed the noise, and became interested.

"Yo, where are you taking him?"

Snyder stopped in his tracks. "ICU," He explained.

"No, no, no. You're going in the opposite direction completely! ICU is in the central hall!"

Snyder started wheeling Jack toward the exit anyway, but the guard took the offensive.

"Hands above your head!" The guard had drawn his weapon, and was now pointing it at Snyder, but Snyder was not stopping. His hands darted into his pants pocket, and pulled out two forks, sharpened and bent. Without even turning around, Snyder threw the makeshift shurikens at the guard. One made its mark by slicing right through the left hand holding the pistol pointed at Snyder. The other one went burrowing deep in the man's trachea. Snyder ran up and covered the man's mouth to prevent any noise alerting others.

"Shh…Sleep my little baby…" Snyder evilly cooed as the guard tried to grab his throat, fell against the wall, and slid to the floor. Looking around, Snyder found a large plastic trash bin on wheels. He wheeled it over to the body, dumped it in and covered it with the remaining garbage. The custodial services would have no idea that they were covering up his dirty work when they went to dump the trash later that day.

Snyder turned around while pushing the button to open up the automatic locked door to the side entrance. They had not yet heard of his escape. He raced on through the side gate with Jack still snoozing in the wheelchair he was pushing. He was now in a large parking lot filled with civilian cars visiting inmates, and several armored prison transport SUVs.

Snyder walked up to the closest all-black Pasadena Correctional Facility transportation SUV and pulled Jack out of the wheelchair, temporarily laying him on the pavement. With the strength of a man that trained every day for five years in a federal penitentiary, he hoisted the medical device above his head and smashed open the driver's side window. Unlocking the doors from within, Snyder pulled Jack up into the passenger side seat, who was just starting to wake. Snyder waltzed over to the driver's side again and took a moment to grab the wire harness from underneath the steering column. In a matter of moments, he had broken two wires apart and were twisting them together. The SUV roared to life, he slammed the door closed, and shoved the transmission into drive.

It was a wet and rainy day, so the SUV's tires squealed slightly more than usual on the pavement. Snyder began the two hour drive to the hideout: a large factory outside the city limits that Jack tucked away for safekeeping.


	12. Chapter 11: An Old Friend

**A/N: Thanks to Tessy3 for DIL NEVILLE for the support!**

* * *

_Squeak!_

A noise was heard from a small green stuffed animal that was slammed onto a wooden post. It was a normal wednesday evening, and Mori had lined his grandsons up in single file out in the back yard for some early morning training. The squeaking continued as he started fastening the toy to the pole with duct tape. All three boys shared puzzled looks with each other as they observed their grandfather's actions.

"Okay boys..." Grandpa started.

"Sir!" All three boys responded while standing up straight and straightening their arms at their sides as they were always instructed.

"Today boys, you will be practicing on getting higher kicks. I want you to hit this stuffed target in just the right spot so the correct noise is heard. This excercise will provide strength and a stretch for your legs as you practice."

Rocky raised his hand.

"Yes Rocky," Grandpa asked.

"Isn't this a little easy? I mean, why don't we just use that dummy that we always use? The one with the light up eyes?" Rocky asked.

"Just as a true ninja can use anything around him to defeat his enemies, he must also be able to practice on any equipment. Besides, I took the dummy to the tailor to get some seams repaired that were fraying."

Rocky still looked unsatisfied.

"Okay Rocky," Grandpa explained, "I want you to hit right _here_." Their grandfather pointed to a small spot on the front of the bear.

"Aye-YA!" Rocky connected with the bear by kicking his right foot forward, and a slight _squeak_ was uttered from the toy.

"Good, now Rocky, I want you to hit right...here." Grandpa then pointed to another spot on the stuffed animal that looked like the same as the first location.

Rocky knew this trick, so he was prepared. He gave another martial arts grunt as he kicked in the complete opposite corner of the teddy bear expecting it not to squeak at all, but much to his surprise another squeak was heard!

"Ah ha ha..." Grandpa started laughing.

"But Grandpa, that wasn't the same spot!" Rocky explained.

"Oh ho ho, exactly boys! It will continue to squeak for eternity. I want you continue to practice now, and only when the squeaker has stopped working...then you are done." Grandpa surveyed Rocky's form for a moment before being satisfied. "Good. Now I must water the front yard." Mori then turned and headed back to his cottage with a walking stick in his right hand.

Colt eyed the green teddy bear that bore a small heart on it's belly. "Aw, what's Tum going to use to fall asleep now?"

"That's easy, probably the food network. Hey, wait!" Tum Tum looked angrily at his brother upon realizing the insult a moment too late.

"Colt! Lift ten buckets of water, now!" Grandpa commanded while still walking off.

"What? Okay…" Colt grimaced while agreeing. He trudged over to the well nearby that they had dug last summer and picked up a bucket full of water that was sitting next to it. Rocky began practicing by setting up a ninja stance and striking the stuffed bear directly in its middle. Each time that Rocky hit, an increasingly annoying squeak was heard.

When their grandfather had gotten a distance away, Colt figured it was safe enough to ask his brother a question.

"So Rocky, why do you think that those thugs were doing here last week?" Colt asked while struggling to lift buckets of water over his head. It was made especially difficult while he tried to remain balanced since the boys' Grandpa had made them strap on wrist weights earlier.

"I'm not sure, but I might have an idea that it was about the stone that we found," Rocky said.

"They probably came to fart in our pudding," Tum Tum said while sitting on a tree stump and eating a twizzler that he had smuggled in his belt.

"What?" Rocky asked while screwing up his face in confusion, "To do what? We didn't have any pudding that day."

"Shut up spaz, it was a phrase. People say it sometimes." Tum Tum replied.

All three boys looked at each other with screwed up smiles. There was a brief pause before all three began laughing hysterically.

"No Tum, people definitely do not say that," Colt said, trying to catch his breath from the laughter.

Back at the cabin Grandpa was tending to his flowers out in front. He moved his hands delicately around the potted plants while he watered them, and positioned some better in the sunlight. Over the years Mori had used his plants as an example to show the boys the benefits of patience and keeping their skills to themselves. Colt, though, still had to work on that aspect a bit.

A high pitched ring was heard and Grandpa turned to look at the cabin. His phone was ringing. This was unusual, since he only had a phone for emergencies and to call the boys' parents. Barely ever was there a time that someone called him, except for the occasional telemarketer.

Walking back into the cabin, Mori grabbed the telephone on its third ring.

"Hello?" Grandpa answered.

"We meet again, old friend," The mysterious voice answered.

"Who is this?"

"A boy from your childhood…"

"Koga!" Grandpa was delighted. He was on good terms with his old friend from Japan after he and his grandsons had run into him and gave him a valuable lesson in humility, resulting in him turning his life of crime around completely.

"I would love to chat, but I am on a schedule. Forgive me for being frank. I come bearing a warning to you," Koga stated.

"What would that be?"

"I am happy with my new found life my friend, but lets just say that when a new leaf is turned over, someone will sweep the leaves up eventually."

"What do you mean?"

"My army was quite large before you showed me the correct path in life. I may have changed, but when I turned my business around there was no need for me to keep my ninja army. In turn, I ended up letting them all go. Having said that, for a brief period of time there were a lot of unemployed trained men running around Japan rampantly. As of one month ago, a lot of them suddenly left the country."

"Where did they all go?"

"I am unsure of that fact. I merely wanted to caution you that some suspicious people may be showing up in the U.S., and you should remain prepared."

"Ah…thank you Koga. You are a good friend, but I do believe we have had our fair share of adventures here. We should be fine for some time now."

"Suit yourself. I must go now. My right hand man, Ishikawa, is making me a milkshake."

"Goodbye old friend," Grandpa hung up the receiver and put a palm to his cheek. He thought about the possibility of a ninja army in Pasadena for a moment, before disregarding it, and tending back to the flowers.


	13. Chapter 12: Near Death

**A/N: Short Chapter, but just the next one's better.**

* * *

Jack nestled in his seat, and opened his eyes, groaning. Snyder had been driving for a few hours, so he had time to wake up.

"Sorry about that hit, it was necessary to fool the guards," Snyder explained.

"Acht," Jack groaned again. "Didja have to be so rough about it?"

"Yes."

Jack sat up in his seat. "How far are we, anyway?"

"We're about 20 minutes from the location. On the way I stopped at a gas station and stole a pre-paid phone. I made a few calls while you were out, and teams are being dispatched to the location already."

"What do you mean?"

"I've still got a few connections left over from before my incarceration. It seems the largest provider of private military ninja army training decided that a life of crime was not for him."

"So what does that mean for us?"

"That means there are a lot of trained soldiers out there without a job. We have now filled that void. Now that we have the muscle and workforce, per our agreement we will set up our manufacturing facility in that leftover office building on the outskirts of the city. As we speak, there are one hundred forty two metric tons of military grade weapons parts and equipment being delivered to the location by helicopter, along with the required muscle."

"Excellent. What's our profit margin expected to be?"

"One hundred percent. My contact, Colonel Feurek, was more than happy to donate the required materials since I pulled a favor for him ten years ago."

"Even better," Jack smiled, "Once again I will be a business leader."

"Now, I have arranged for a multi-billion dollar client meet with us in regards to an offer. The only thing is, he had one requirement in order to do business with us."

"What would that be?"

"We are to construct a brand new WMD. A weapon that can be launched from anywhere in the world and cause more destruction than a 50 ton hydrogen bomb."

"I'll tell our engineering department to get on design specs right away. Gimme the phone," Jack commanded, while reaching for the cell phone that laid on the center console between the two men.

Snyder quickly snatched the small prepaid phone from the dash. "There is no need to," he said, "We already have the design made."

"How?"

"The late Mr. Brown may have been my attorney, but many did not know he was also a brilliant scientist. He was responsible for most of our previous missile designs, and his greatest masterpiece was the Big Bertha 6, but there was one reason why we could not complete the weapon and my old partner Mori Tanaka is in possession of it."

"You mean that rock you had your idiots steal from that old man was the missing element in the Big Bertha 6 plans?"

"Yes. Without it, we cannot complete the weapon by any means. It should be on its way easily though, as old Mori has no idea what it is. To him it is merely a fancy crystal. As soon as those three idiots return, we will have everything necessary to dominate this entire region."

Snyder and Jack shared a long maniacal laugh as they drove further into the outskirts. Snyder was not paying attention, however, and did not notice the small girl that was crossing the road along the dusty trail.

The girl noticed that the SUV was not stopping, and she froze. Her dark skin was hard to see in the setting sun, along with her long brown hair that blended into the surroundings. Her beautiful Native American eyes widened with fear as the driver then noticed the small teenage girl, and screeched to a halt before stopping in the dirt shoulder. The large vehicle came within a few feet of hitting her.

"Where the hell did that girl _come from_?!" Jack raged, while adjusting himself back into the passenger's seat. The quick stop from Snyder had sent him nearly bashing his head into the dashboard.

"I do not know," Snyder said between clenched teeth, angered at the fact that he had almost blown their cover.

Jack stuck his wrinkled neck out the window of the SUV and waved his hand to prevent from coughing. Dirt and dust had been stirred up all around the vehicle due to the nature of the road, and made it almost impossible for Jack to see the person responsible for their near accident. "What're you doing in the middle of the road, you idjiot!" He yelled.

"Sorry," The small voice answered.

Jack sat back inside the car and angrily stuffed his seatbelt back into the buckle. "Alright, let's get on with it," He advised. Snyder waited for the girl to walk out of the road and again they commenced their drive.

"Who was it?" Snyder asked.

"Just some girl. Funny thing is, she kinda looked familiar."

Snyder gave Jack a questionable look.

"Nothing. Nevermind. We're almost there anyway. I need to change my clothes." Jack added.

"Anything you say, Jackie."


	14. Chapter 13: Another Old Friend

**A/N: I hope this is still keeping you guys interested! Rate and Review.**

* * *

_Punch, punch, kick. Punch, punch, elbow._ Colt was sparring by himself in the backyard. The large stuffed dummy that he was using was starting to become frayed at the seams, and the padding was falling out. Colt looked at it and felt a pang of anxiety knowing how mad Grandpa was going to be; he just had the sparring dummy fixed yesterday. Colt had spent about an hour practicing already, so he was breaking out in a sweat. He was all alone out there because he had just gotten in a small fight with his brothers about something unimportant, and he needed time to cool off.

The forest around Colt's grandpa's cabin was the best place to get away. Large expansive green and yellow trees covered the area, giving it the perfect mix of shade and sunshine. Colt looked up at the sun, and observed its beautiful golden rays as they poked and danced through the limbs and leaves of the foliage. Birds chirped all around, adding to the harmony of his summer getaway. _It felt nice to be alone in the woods every once in a while,_ Colt thought.

A lot of times Colt ended up in this situation: he would over-react to a small argument, and because of his temper would end up stomping away and end up taking it out on something else. Usually he stuck to the punching bag, but since there was none at the cabin, the overstuffed mannequin would have to do. After a few more punches and elbows, Colt's arms became strained. He collapsed onto the dummy breathing hard and dripping with perspiration.

"Are you okay?" A female voice said behind him.

Colt's eyes snapped open and he stood up straight immediately. He turned around to see a young Native American girl about the same age as him standing behind him. Her murky brown eyes glittered in the sunlight, and her long brown hair flowed behind her like silk as she walked towards him. The boys' friend Jo had come to visit, as she lived in the Indian village near their cottage. Colt had not spoken to her in years. Occasionally she would stop by to try and talk to him, but he was always too bashful, and would hide away until she left. Now that he had seen her grown up, he could not hide any more. She was absolutely gorgeous.

"H-hi, Jo," Colt stammered as she came closer.

"How are you?"

"I-I'm uh, good," Colt faltered with his words. Colt had an unhealthy twitch that made him unable to concentrate when he was nervous. He was so shy that he found himself doing anything to avoid looking Jo in the eyes. He went to walk towards her but ended up tripping on a pair of nunchucks that he had left on the ground nearby. Colt placed his hands in front of him to catch his fall, but he still fell on his knees with a dull thud.

"Oh my," Jo gasped while watching the scene before her. She ran up to her friend and crouched to the ground to help him up, "Did that hurt?" She asked.

Colt grimaced at the humiliation more than the pain. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just never able to do anything right."

"You're able to make me smile," Jo said while helping him brush the dirt off himself, Colt blushed and turned away.

"Right," He answered.

"Besides, I know Rocky and Tum Tum always brag about how you are the smartest when it comes to thinking up cool ideas. Something about operation…instant diarrhea or something?"

Colt then turned his head and delivered a piercing stare at Jo. "They told you about the phase two plan? I'm going to kill those guys!" He stood up and began to move towards the cabin.

"Hey wait Colt," Jo stopped him.

"What?" Colt replied, sounding surprised. He turned around to see Jo standing there, with her hands behind her back, looking at the ground.

"I've been wanting to talk to you for a while, do you want to go for a walk?"

Colt hesitated. "Uh, s-sure."

Colt picked up his nunchucks that he had left on the ground and shoved them in his belt. It was then that he began to be self conscious of how sweaty he was. They walked into the woods where it overlooked a small valley, and sat on a mossy, fallen over tree trunk.

"How have you been?" Jo asked.

"Good," Colt responded robotically. There was a pause, since Colt's one word responses were not keeping the conversation moving.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Mhm?" Colt answered, getting more nervous, because Jo had closed the gap that was between them. She now was a mere inches from his face.

"How…how come you haven't wanted to see me the last few years?"

Colt again averted his gaze from Jo. He was too ashamed to admit that he was too scared to talk to her after the first summer he met her. Girls were still so very hard for him to talk to, especially cute ones like Jo.

"Was it something I did?" Jo pressed.

Colt ran his hand through his hair. "No, Jo. Its not that. Its just…I've been very busy."

"Rocky and Tum Tum never seem to be too busy to talk to me whenever I come over," Jo said accusingly.

"Look Jo, I never meant to make it seem like I was mad at you. It…Its complicated. I mean, last year I almost got killed at Mega Mountain, and last week I had a run-in with some unfriendly idiots…" Colt trailed off while looking out into the valley, observing the small river that ran through it. At the base of the river, a small crane had caught a fish, and lept out of the water.

The silence had gotten to Jo. "Can you look at me?" she took her hand and placed it on Colt's chest. Colt was brought back to reality. He was trying so hard to avoid her eyes and the conversation that he had been quite obvious in doing so. He returned his view to Jo.

"Sorry," Colt said. He thought that it might be best to change the subject, since the current one didn't seem to be one that he could win. "How's your dad doing?"

Jo sat back, obviously disappointed in the topic change. "He's good. Ever since he got elected as the new mayor of our town, things have been really cleaning up the last few years. He's been hard at work so he doesn't come home that often. I guess not much has changed since the kidnapping, huh?" Jo forced a slight smile as she looked up at Colt.

"Yeah," Colt answered, remembering the time they had saved him from being kidnapped by Jack Harding two summers ago.

"I actually was just going to visit him at work before I came here. On the way though, I almost got hit by a prison van."

"Prison van?" Colt looked directly at Jo for once, screwing his face up into a confused look.

"Yeah, it was big, and the windows were all blacked out on the sides, and it said Pasadena Correctional Facility on it. I was crossing the street, the people in the car were arguing about something, and they didn't see me. When they got real close, I got scared and froze in the middle of the road, almost causing them to crash."

"Oh my god, did you see either of them?"

Jo looked down at her feet, "No. Not really. I think the man that was driving had a ponytail. The other guy yelled at me, though, and he got real mad."

Colt's veins turned ice cold. A ponytail? It was very non-specific, but it was too coincidental to be true. Perhaps there was a guard at that prison that had a similar ponytail, but Colt remembered that Pasadena Correctional Facility was the exact place Snyder was being held. "Jo, which way was this truck headed, north or south?"

"North, towards the abandoned district, in the outskirts of the village, why?" Jo shot Colt a questioning look.

Colt was immediately stricken with fear as he made the connection as to who was driving the van. "Omigosh. We need to go. Right now!" Colt swiftly grabbed Jo's small hand and began dragging her back towards the cottage.

"Colt, what is going on! Please! What happened?" Jo fought back from Colt's desperate pull, dragging her shoes in the dirt to prevent from going any further, in fear that he was trying to escape from talking to her once again. In respect, Colt let go of her hand and turned to face her. "Colt, can I just say one thing?"

"Sure, whatever, what is it, just tell me! We have to go!" Colt said, growing impatient. Jo pulled his head close and kissed him on the cheek, causing him to blush and grow nervous for a new reason.

"There, that's all I wanted, jeez," Jo said with an annoyed tone while walking back to the cabin. Meanwhile, Colt had not moved from him where she had kissed him. She turned back to look at her now paralyzed friend.

"Come on Colt, didn't you want to get back for some reason?" She frowned at Colt's nonresponsiveness, so this time it was her that had to grab _his_hand and lead him back to from whence they came.

* * *

"Colt, It does seem a little far fetched, don't you think?" Rocky said while giving his brother a lumpy look. Jo and Colt had returned to his grandfather's cabin, where the whole family was gathered in the front. Rocky and Tum Tum were in the middle of sparring each other when they had been interrupted by the couple. In the back, their Grandpa did not speak, but merely listened.

"It makes perfect sense, Rocky. Snyder went to Pasadena prison. The prison vans never come out this far, ever," Colt pleaded, "And Jo says the guy had a ponytail!"

"He's right Rocky, prisoners' hair becomes _invincible_ in jail," Tum Tum said sarcastically, "They can try cutting it when they get in there, but the scissors just break."

Colt got angry at Tum Tum's obvious joke. "What? Shut up, I'm serious, guys! I really think there's something really bad about to happen," he pleaded.

"So what do you suggest? We should go looking for this mysterious prison van being driven by an ex convict that _we_put in jail?" Rocky said.

Colt dropped his head and stared at a pot of yellow flowers that were placed before him. His grandfather had freshly watered them, and the glint of the water droplets in the sun caught his eye. He didn't expect his brothers to agree with him on the issue, but it was still hard for him to admit when Rocky was right. He was about to say something when his Grandpa walked up closer to him and picked up the plants in front of him.

"Colt, I know you're concerned, but worrying too much is like watering a flower too often. Eventually your fears will overwhelm you, and make you shrivel and die," Mori offered as kind words of wisdom.

"I'm not afraid!" Colt yelled in response, face flushed and angered at the idea of his family making him look like a coward in front of a girl he was interested in. They never seemed to understand him, and it further annoyed him that they wouldn't take his side on any opinion. "You guys really need to start opening your eyes. I know Snyder is out there. When trouble comes, I don't want any of you dweebs coming to me!"

Colt stormed off from the group, heading toward the road.

"Colt! Wait-" Jo started, but was cut off by Rocky.

"-Jo, let him go. He just needs some time to cool off."

Jo stepped back, crossed her arms, and watched as Colt disappeared far down the dirt road in the setting sun.

* * *

A short time later, Colt was in town, still fuming. He had nothing to punch, nothing to release his anger, so it remained. It had gotten dark out, he figured it was about midnight when he reached Lancaster street. Many of the townspeople had gone home to bed, so the streets were empty. This was due to the fact that it was a weekday; restaurants were closed, no cars roamed the streets, it really was quite serene, if a bustling town square could be. Lancaster street was the main strip of the small suburb of Los Angeles. It was within walking distance of Grandpa's cabin, so it was very convenient that Colt could be there in under an hour without having to worry about how to get back.

Once there, Colt laid down on a free park bench on the sidewalk of lancaster street and stared at the stars. Of all the constellations, Colt only knew pegasus. He could pick it out so easily because his grandpa had shown him one night while explaining to him why he chose to give him the ninja name "Colt".

_Do you know why I picked your name to be Colt, Jeffrey? Consider pegasus, the winged horse. Being a full grown mare is not all it seems to be. He had to grow wings to become something out of the ordinary. Do not lose that youthfulness and spirit of adventure, Jeffrey. From here on out, you will be the embodiment of a fast and free animal._

Colt smiled and closed his eyes, and finally felt his irritation leaving his mind. Reflecting upon his memories usually make his appreciation for Grandpa or his brothers grow. It was about that time that he felt he should get back to the cabin before his family missed him. After Grandpa's speech about worriedness though, he felt that it would not be a problem tonight, so he was in no hurry.

Colt was drifting out of his stargazing when suddenly he heard yelling across the street, causing him to open his eyes. He looked around and off in the distance he could make out two people; one standing above the other that was on the ground, cowering in front of a sleazy nightclub.

Colt got up from his bench and snuck up to a nearby dumpster, avoiding the streetlights that littered the main areas. He could make out the sign above the door of the building that read "JJ's Club". Repositioning himself behind the dumpster, he crouched down and stuck his head out to listen in.

"You didn't hear me the first time? We don't allow ugly broads in our club," A deep male voice said.

"Y-You let me in," a smaller female voice answered, presumably belonging to the one on the ground.

"I'll let you into my fist club if you don't shut up," The other voice replied.

Colt strained his neck to get a good view of the couple. A moment later, he saw the big guy with the trucker cap that had attacked him and his brothers at their cabin a few days ago, standing over a woman menacingly. It was the one they called Awesome!

Colt ducked back behind the dumpster. _That makes sense_, Colt thought. _The big fat boy has a job as a bouncer at a nightclub. How fitting._

"I-I'm leaving now," the young girl said.

"I ain't gonna tell you again," Awesome commanded, as he raised his arm with an open palm over the girl sprawled on the cement. But just as the beastly man was about to strike the woman, a small noise was heard, and Awesome grabbed his own right forearm, which was now bleeding.

"Ahh!" Awesome yelled, as he held pressure on his new, mysterious cut.

The club girl was not aware of what happened, but she took this opportunity to escape. She ripped her high heels off of her feet and took off running until she was safely away. Awesome looked at the wall of the building next to him, as there was something stuck in it. He walked up, plucked it out and studied it carefully. It was a rusty pop can top that was bent to have blades like a throwing star. He quickly turned to see who had thrown the makeshift weapon, but saw nothing but an empty street.


	15. Chapter 14: Cheap Shots

"YOU DID WHAT?!"

Snyder's voice boomed throughout the new facility. Jack and Snyder had pulled a fast job in restoring the old building that they were left with. Thankfully, right when they arrived the new muscle got right to work: separating people to renovate, others to train, and groups to begin the weapons manufacturing. They now had many large upscale offices that lined the second story that overlooked three main large rooms in the center of the building. Phase one was in the most western part of the plant and included open training to all of the men. Phase two was in the center of the building and consisted of design and engineering, and lastly Phase three was in the easternmost wing and was where all of the weapons manufacturing underwent construction.

Snyder stood up in his chair that was located in a large office room in phase 1. Buzz, Rooster and Awesome stood on the other side of the very expensive office desk that rested between them. It had been two days since the trio we beaten by the three ninjas, and now that Snyder had set up a home base of operations, it was time for them to report their work.

"We had to retreat. They just were too good. I didn't know they were mini versions of Ralph Macchio," Buzz said while looking at the ground to avoid Snyder's piercing look. The large ornate windows that lined the wall to his right let light shine brightly into the large office, providing accent to the expensive leather chairs that remained empty behind the trio. Buzz's eyes nervously darted from the ground where he was staring, and he noticed that Snyder had come a long way since they had met in the conference room of the Pasadena Correctional Facility. He now donned an expensive Italian suit and his hair was perfectly greased back, giving him a classy, yet sinister look. On his desk were a brand new laptop and a series of expensive glass figurines. From time to time Snyder would glance at the computer screen and then furiously scribble notes down in the ledger that was in front of him.

Snyder was infuriated. "So you're going to stand there and tell me that I assigned you to the simplest of tasks and you couldn't even do _THAT?"_

Buzz just continued to stare at the ground, noticing out of the corner of his eye that Snyder's right side of his face was pulled into a nasty scowl, making the nostrils of his jutted nose flare out.

Snyder looked up towards Rooster. "You!" He pointed at the baseball pitcher, "Can you explain to me what the _HELL HAPPENED?!" _he commanded while slamming the pen he was writing with onto the desk and leaning forward as he spoke.

"Uh, he uh, doesn't..." Awesome interjected, "He doesn't really speak, sir." Snyder turned his head quickly to meet Awesome's face, and gave him the angriest look he had ever seen. A vein was pulsing in his neck, and he had turned a dark shade of red over his Italian skin. Awesome shifted uncomfortably for a moment, fiddled with his backwards trucker hat, and forced himself to look the man in his face. "Well," he started, "The twerps just caught us off guard. I wasn't fast enough to counter 'em."

Snyder gave Awesome a once-over and evaluated him. He noticed that he had a bandage wrapped around his right arm that looked stained with blood. "What happened here?" He asked the young man in the mesh hat, while pointing an accusing finger at the damage.

"Sumpin' happened the other day, I got cut by something flyin' around at work," Awesome lied, trying to cover up the fact that he still could not explain what happened last night. "If I seen who it was, I woulda bashed their face in. They were too quick though."

Snyder stood up from his chair, gave him another once-over and showed a disgusted look, as if to say, _"How could you be so useless?"_

He took a step back and straightened his suit jacket. "You look like a strong enough guy from what I see. So it sounds like you are you telling me that you have the power, you just don't know how to use it. _That_, my friends is a solvable problem," Snyder said as he walked over to the entrance of his office and stood at the door. "Follow me, morons."

The trio turned and followed their boss through the doorway and down the plain steel-walled hall. After a few turns, Snyder opened another door to a steel grate ledge that overlooked the large open warehouse area of phase one with many different people screaming barbarically on blue padded floors and other training equipment. Ninjas in black clad uniforms fought with swords, sparred with their bare fists, and climbed ropes all over; It looked like something out of an action movie!

Buzz, Rooster and Awesome stared slack-jawed at the scene before them. They had never seen such an intricate and large scale operation up close. The men trained hard down in the room below, but they looked determined, they had a purpose. All three of the men looked down below with jealousy, wanting desperately to be needed like the ninjas working hard below them.

"Here is where you will gain a new life," Snyder said to the three idiots while motioning to one of the men down below.

Soon enough the man he motioned to appeared on the walkout ledge that they were all standing on and he located himself next to Snyder. He was wearing a red ninja gi, with only his eyes showing from his face behind a clear round face mask that Snyder's men were notorious for sporting.

"Wu, I need you to train my three men here with a crash course on the Trachzor style of our eastern philosophy."

"Yes sir," The ninja replied with a very strong Asian accent. He then turned to the three boys that stood before him. "You three! Come with me."

Awesome and Rooster obediently followed the leader down the stairs. Buzz was the last one to follow. As he passed, Snyder grabbed his shoulder.

"Have you and your boys come back to my office after training. I have another job for you to make up for this…mishap."

Buzz nodded his head and joined the others down in the training arena. . All three felt as though they were being punished so they held their heads down as they passed men that gave judgmental looks from beneath their balaclava masks. Rooster, however, found that the amazing scenes before him were mesmerizing. He took this time as they walked to study each of the group's techniques for each style that they were practicing. He noticed subtle tricks with their fingers as two men fought each other with nunchucks on a ledge, the movement of the legs and arms of the ninjas as they climbed ropes on the walls. This was the motivation that Rooster had been seeking for a long time.

"Today, I am going to make you work until you bleed," The red-clad instructor commanded, "You three have neglected any form of spirit balance. You must use everything around to hurt your enemies, delivering the most pain possible at all times. Even if they are weaker or smaller than you, you must strike first, strike hard and give _no mercy!"_

Wu walked over to a rack in the corner of the room which held miscellaneous weapons and picked up a baton. Walking up to Buzz, he held the stick in front of him in his right hand. "You. What do you think this is?"

Buzz rolled his eyes, "It's the key to my heart. Just kidding, it's a baton, _duh_!"

Wu immediately whipped his left hand up and bashed a clay training pot onto Buzz's head, nearly giving him a concussion. Buzz hell to the ground holding his head where the pain shot into his skull, and pieces of clay fell around him. "Ow, you ginger ninja! Whadja do that for?"

"I bet you did not see that one coming, did you not? I do not _care _who you are, friend or foe. I must destroy _anyone_ that is not me, that is the only way you will end up on top in this world," Wu instructed in his thick accent, "And you are to practice this technique of confusion and pain until you have mastered it!"

* * *

Buzz, Awesome and Rooster spent the first hour of their training by punching dummies until their hands were calloused and hard. Their leader, Wu, had commanded them to punch only the vital areas with as much force as they could. They slammed their fists at full strength at the kidneys, heart, and kicked the space between their legs repeatedly.

"This is awesome!" Buzz yelled when he punched his dummy all the way to the end of the wall. He was tired and his hand hurt, but he could feel the power coursing throughout his body. He now had the strength to take the 3 Ninjas on. "I can't wait to pound that little kindergarten crockpot!"

"Quiet, you fool!" Wu scolded. Next to Buzz, Awesome used his massive weight to pummel the dummy in front of him. Each time he swung and connected with the padded equipment a loud thud was heard across the training floor, drowning out even the sounds of the men yelling while training. With one last mighty punch, Awesome came right across the dummy face, causing it to spin around completely backwards.

"Ho, ho, ho," Awesome laughed deeply. Taking a step back, he marveled in his improvement, feeling satisfied. He had finally perfected the new technique: using his weight to increase the power of his punch. "I bet I could even punch through a rock wall now!"

"Imbecile! Get back to training!" Wu again reprimanded.

In the background, Rooster was training furiously. He had found his second wind and was taking full advantage of it. He attacked the dummy full force, multiplied by the sheer speed he gained through rigorous baseball practices. He found it easier to attack in three round bursts, because it reminded him of the explosive power of a machine gun.

Neck-neck-sternum. Groin-groin-groin. knee-knee-kidney. The punches and kicks landed in the blink of an eye. The stuffing of the dummy was starting to fly out at the large holes that he had created in it, and with one final uppercut, the whole upper torso of the punching equipment went flying off of its central pole axis. He turned around and threw a ninja star at a target directly behind him, hitting the bullseye dead on center. Wu and other surrounding men were watching Rooster, pleased with his work. A few even started clapping at his performance.

"Excellent, very excellent. You two!" Wu pointed to Rooster's allies, "Take a lesson from your friend here, he has the dedication to become a true ninja."

Buzz and Awesome looked at Rooster, breathing heavily, but envious of his new title. They looked at each other for a moment before returning to the training.


	16. Chapter 15: One Week Later

Clothes were piled all over the floor; bags were half packed and strewn about the cottage. The three ninjas were getting ready to go home for the summer the next day, so they were spending the afternoon cleaning up. This was the time that they hated most. All three kids were always scrambling to find that last belt to their gi, or the last ninja star that completed the collection. Of course this also meant that the kids were always bumping into each other, and getting more and more stressed as time went on. Tum Tum was busy in the upstairs sleeping area stuffing the last of his twinkies into the side pocket of his bag.

"Cut it out Tum, it's not going to work, or else you'll end up with a gigantic bag of whipped cream when we get back home," Colt said while he noticed his brother having trouble. Tum Tum didn't care about what his brother said. He was going to make it work.

"Aye-YA!" Tum Tum yelled as he used the last of his strength to zip his bag shut. "See?" Tum Tum jeered at his brother. Colt ignored him.

Walking down the twisted stairs that led to their living room, Colt shuffled out of the way to avoid being trampled by Rocky, who was busy trying to find the last of his clothes that he had left in the laundry room.

"Watch it Colt, I still have to find Tum Tum's maniac mechanic t-shirt that I borrowed and we don't have much more time left. Grandpa said we're leaving tomorrow at the break of dawn, and I haven't even found my hat yet," Rocky advised to Colt without turning his head as he walked by. He feverishly lifted up couch cushions and pillows searching for the lost items.

"That's okay. Tum Tum will never find his last bag of Skittles, I hid them in the knothole of the tree in front yesterday," Colt replied, dropping his packed bag in the kitchen.

"Very funny, is that what you did with my hat too?"

"Uhh, umm...no, I'm pretty sure that Grandpa used that to swat a spider and took it to get washed," Colt bit his lip and hid his laughter from his brother, now remembering that he had gotten bored and buried Rocky's hat in the backyard a few weeks ago.

Colt amused himself for a few minutes by taking a seat at the kitchen counter and watch Rocky's anxiety grow, knowing full well that his brother was not going to find his hat at all this summer. After a while, He remembered to tell Rocky about the night he had stormed into town and found the big bouncer working.

"Hey Rocky?" Colt started.

Rocky poked his head into the kitchen from another room, not really looking at his brother still, "Yeah, what is it? I'm kinda busy here."

"I meant to tell you something about what happened the other day, you know, when I got mad and ran to town," Colt said, trying to get his brother to listen.

"It happens sometimes man, it's okay, I forgive you."

"No, not that. I mean, when I was in town, I saw someone."

Rocky finally lifted his head up from his searching underneath a coffee table to look at his brother. "Who?"

Colt was about to respond but was interrupted of heavy footprints coming from upstairs. Both him and Rocky looked to see Tum Tum struggling to walk down the stairs from their room with his bag, which was so stuffed full of food that it dwarfed him considerably. Their little brother was having a hard time getting around with his big bag around his shoulder, but he was determined enough to make it work. Finally, he rested it on the kitchen counter, gasping for air.

"I'm not complaining at all guys," Tum Tum started, "but this ninja training really starts to wear on us kids."

"Maybe if Grandpa made you lift buckets of Reese's Pieces instead of water, you would get stronger," Rocky remarked.

"Jerk!" Tum Tum yelled over his shoulder as he attempted to fit one more box of oatmeal cream pies in his bag.

Colt turned back to Rocky after laughing at his brothers' bickering. "So Rocky, _as_ I was _saying..._"

"Yeah, sorry. What were you saying?"

"I kinda went to Lancaster Street to cool down, but when I was there-"

"-You went to Lancaster Street?" Rocky interrupted his brother, "You're going to be in big trouble if Grandpa ever finds out that you walked all the way out there."

"Yes, yes, I'm aware spaz," Colt said sarcastically, "But you're not listening. When I was there, I saw someone who-"

A splattering noise was heard and Colt snapped out of the conversation. Both him and Rocky looked over their shoulders to see Tum Tum covered in a thick white foam, which also covered his bag and the counter.

"Oops…" Tum Tum said. He just stood there, realizing that he had packed too much into his bag. Rocky and Colt both slapped their hands to their heads and sighed.

A ring was heard and Tum Tum squished his way over to the telephone and picked it up.

"Hullo? Hey dad, what's going on? We learned a lot of cool stuff this summer," Tum started excitedly.

"Tum Tum, please…let me talk to Rocky," The voice of Sam Douglas on the phone was cracking. Faint sounds of sobbing were heard from the boys' father on the other end.

"Dad, is everything okay?" Tum Tum asked. His eyes started to tear up as he understood the gravity of the situation from his father's tone of voice.

"Just...let me talk to your brother."

Rocky sullenly walked up to the phone and took it from Tum. He was unsure what the news could be, but it must have been important if their father was calling them at their grandfather's cottage.

"Hey dad," Rocky greeted.

"Rocky, I don't know how to tell you kids, but…but your mother has been kidnapped. I don't want you to worry; I've got the entire Bureau on it. I don't know much, but boys…" Sam Douglas's voice was faltering on the phone, obviously he had been weeping. Rocky could tell that His father was having a hard time dealing with the news. "…I want you to stay with your grandfather."

"Dad, I..." Rocky started.

"No. I don't want to hear it. You need to stay with grandfather, it will be safer that way."

"But dad, why mom?"

"I have no idea, son. They left a note about some damn jewel…The idiot left his fingerprints!" Sam douglas trailed off in some sort of craze.

"Dad, calm down, who left their fingerprints?" Rocky pleaded.

"I thought we put him away for good…"

"Dad!"

"Snyder, Rocky. It's Snyder. He escaped from Pasadena a while ago, and I held back from telling you boys in fear you might worry," The boys' father explained. Rocky gasped and froze in fear. _Colt had been right all along!_

"Yeah dad, we'll stay here."

"Good. That makes me feel better. I have to go now, I'll talk to you later."

"Bye."

Rocky slammed the receiver down with a newfound passion, and turned to Colt and Tum Tum, who had become wide-eyed while listening to their brother's conversation, "Colt. I am so sorry for doubting you," He said, while looking at the ground.

Colt shook it off like it was nothing, "I'm used to it."

"Guys, this is serious. We need to find where Snyder is. NOW."

"I know how we can do that," Colt said, matter-of-factly.

"What?" Rocky questioned. He was confused, because he was planning on this being a very difficult task to find one man in the large surrounding area with no leads or anything.

Colt crossed his arms in front of his chest in a cocky manner, as his two brothers were now a mere inches away from him, awaiting his response."Man, this must be my lucky day, cuz this is my second win in thirty seconds. This feels great. That makes you both spaz-tasic losers."

"Colt!" Rocky and Tum screamed.

"Okay, okay. Jeez you two, take a chill pill," Colt held his hands out to push his brothers back, "That night I stormed off I saw that big dude working at that nasty dance club in town. We'll just follow him to where he goes after work."

"Boy, I'm really mad we ignored the middle child on that one..." Tum Tum exclaimed.

"I'll take that as a really stupid apology, Tum," Colt rolled his eyes.

"Listen guys, first things first. Guys, grab your masks. We're going out tonight," Rocky instructed as he looked out the front window to the cabin. Their grandfather was just pulling into the driveway, so he had to hurry up with the plan. He paused as he watched his Grandpa get out of his car and start tending to some flowers in the front while he carefully formulated a plan. "This time, it's serious. We cannot afford to have our identities known."

* * *

It was about one in the morning when the three brothers stirred in their beds. Normally Rocky and Colt had to slap Tum Tum to wake him from sleep, but tonight he did not put up a fight. If anything, he was the most determined. Snyder had made their mother suffer, so in turn Tum Tum decided that Snyder must suffer.

Rocky was wearing his green karate gi and emerald ninja mask. Colt was straightening up his pants, while he was wearing a light blue gi and donned a blue and white ninja mask of his own. Tum Tum crawled over to the dresser nearby their beds and grabbed his yellow ninja mask and matching gi. Pulling the belt tight around his waist, the last of the boys was ready to go on their adventure.

Yet again another three pairs of feet made their way down the stairs to the boys' grandfather's home. As opposed to last time, this time no mistakes would be made. Their escape would be flawless; if things were done right their Grandpa would never know of them being missing.

The walk was short; they slowly made their way into the town from their grandfather's dirt path driveway. The moon was in their favor tonight. Since it was a new moon, it was easier for them to stay hidden in the dark. It took some walking, but when the three finally reached the outskirts of town on Lancaster street, the observed the scads of cars that lined the road, parallel parked to form a nearly endless line of vehicles down the town's main strip.

"Over there," Rocky pointed to an alleyway off of the street, "That alley goes past Delco Street and will take us all the way to the bar that you were telling us about, Colt."

The two brothers nodded in agreement from under their masks, and then all three ran to the small alley from the shadows, taking care to not be noticed by anyone that may be looking out of the various bar windows that decorated Lancaster Street. Within a short time, the three brothers turned their last corner in the alleyway and were right in front of a bar located across the street. Rocky peeped his masked face from just barely outside the alley opening; they were right in front of JJ's Bar just as it was closing.

Colt looked around for anything around them they could use around them to trick their enemies. Besides, they were just in the middle of an open alley right in front of the bar, which was not helping them conceal themselves.

"Guys," Colt whispered and pointed to the row of cars right in front of them that were parallel parked on their side of the street, "Lets hide behind that blue Durango parked there. It's big enough to hide us and we can probably get a closer look."

Thankfully, the big truck was modified enough by the owner for off roading that there was enough space for the three brothers to crawl underneath it and get a good shot of who was leaving the bar across the street. They noticed the lighting of the neon framed signs of various beer slogans stayed lit in the windows, despite it being very late. Rocky began to fear that they were still open until he noticed the "Open" light flicker and turn off. He looked to the corner of the front door and saw that a few of the workers were sharing a cigarette break together as they said goodnight, and the young ninjas stayed patient underneath the car. It was then that he realized it was extremely risky to hide under a car parked on the street corner, because the car could belong to any one of the bar workers that were just leaving work.

After a while, the trio noticed Awesome coming out of the club. It seems he did not smoke, so he was just going home, he did not waste any time socializing with co-workers. The bouncer walked to his truck in the corner of the parking lot, jumped in the driver's seat, then Rocky noticed the familiar glow of a cell phone screen in the cab.

In the true ninja style, Rocky, Colt and Tum Tum slowly sneaked their way down the rows of cars to get to the parking lot unnoticed before slithering up to the truck in the corner of the parking lot and quietly jumping into the bed of the truck. They ducked down in the back and waited until finally Awesome put the vehicle into gear and it moved forward to their destination.

It took a while before they were to reach the location, so all three brothers looked up at the stars in the back of the truck, thinking of what they were about to do. Occasionally the truck would lurch to the left or right, sending the bodies of the boys piled in the back into one another; it would take all the willpower of their minds not to start laughing at the uncontrollable crashes occurring. Finally, the black Dodge Ram slowed down and came to a halt before the engine was turned off. The sound of a car door opening then slamming shut was heard, along with footsteps crunching off in the distance.

Rocky was the first to come out. They were in a large gravel parking lot in front of a monstrous factory that looked brand new. He had surveyed the surroundings before leaping out, so he knew they were safe. Colt and Tum Tum followed, sticking close to the truck to avoid being seen.

Colt adjusted his mask and pulled the belt on his gi tighter. He did not want any issues if they got into any trouble. The blue and white design of his mask did not fare well with the darkness of night, but did protect his face.

"What now?" Tum Tum asked muffled beneath his yellow and orange mask.

Rocky looked around and studied the building. There were many windows, but they were blacked out so that one could only see inside if they were right in front of the pane. His head swiveled around to look on the east side of the building, and his eyes rested upon the most stereotypical of secret building entrances.

"Over there," Rocky whispered quietly, motioning to his two brothers toward the drainpipe he saw in front of them. They kept crouched low and ran over to the side of the building to inspect it. Looking upwards, the steel drain pipe snaked all the way to the top of the building, which was at least three stories high. At each story level, there was a catwalk that wrapped around the outside of the building in front of its windows. It seemed easy enough to be able to do, so Rocky commenced by holding his hands out for Tum Tum to get a boost and reach the closest point. Colt then followed and Rocky joined them, they slowly made their way up to the second story. When they got to the catwalk, they slowly creeped along, peeping in the windows as they passed.

Tum Tum went first because he was the smallest, and least likely to be seen. The first window showed a small office that looked unused; there was nothing more than a desk and a few opened boxes lying around. The next was full of documents and random office supplies. When Tum Tum got to the third window, he stopped.

"Woah," Tum Tum gasped at the sight before him. His brothers noticed his reaction, and quickly ran up to the window to witness the scene as well. The window opened up to the large training area of the compound where they saw massive amounts of people in ninja gear training on sophisticated equipment in large groups. Padded floor mats lined the entire room, men were throwing shurikens at targets, and the clack of bo staff and sword sparring was heard even through the window. Instructors stood in front of groups of the men, delivering training instructions in an all too familiar style. The boys knew only two people that trained by mass instruction using the Wulong methodology; one was their grandfather, the other was his former business partner, Hugo Snyder.

"Oh my GOD, guys," Colt loudly whispered, "Look over there," Colt pointed to the farthest corner of the open training part of the warehouse. There, a group of four ninjas held their bound up mother in front of a gray haired old man in a very expensive business suit.

The businessman walked up to the restrained mother and held her chin up disapprovingly. He seemed to be saying something to her, but the words could not be heard due to the boys being so far away. They were not focused on this man, anyway, because they noticed the streams of tears that were dripping off of the woman's face. The sight of this enraged Colt and Rocky. They looked at each other for a moment to check if they were each feeling the same thing. Tum Tum must not have seen the look on their mother's face, because instead of looking at his brothers, he pointed out the old man.

"Hey, that guy looks like that Jack Harding guy that Jo's dad punched out at the hearing a few years ago!" Tum Tum noticed, while pointing at the scene before them.

_Oh no_, Colt thought. The horrible feeling of knowing that things were worse than they thought had sunk into his stomach, making him feel instantly ill.

"That _is_ that Jack Harding guy," a voice said behind them. All three ninjas reeled around to see a ninja in a red gi standing on the ground below them with two other ninjas as back up. They stood below them with their guards up, prepared to battle.

"Let's do this, guys," Rocky said while assuming a stance. The boys felt that it wouldn't be much of a problem since it was only three versus three, or so it seemed. As soon as they assumed positions on the catwalk, several climbing ropes unraveled on both sides of the boys, and multitudes of ninjas descended upon them and grabbed them.

"What the…?"

"Hey!"

"No!"

The boys struggled against the ninjas holding them tight, but there was no escape. They had been caught.

"So," The red ninja below them paced back and forth as he spoke, "You boys thought you could just sneak up on us and infiltrate our training grounds? I think you've sadly underestimated the forces that we have here. It takes a dedicated and steady mind to truly become a ninja, and you boys didn't quite cut it tonight, all because of this." The ninja held up his right hand, which was holding a bright pink jellybean. "Perhaps you should check your satchel before leaping out of the back of a vehicle. I might have tripped on this and fell."

"Tum, seriously?" Colt looked at Tum Tum.

"I'm _sorry_ guys!" Tum Tum apologized.

"Mr. Harding will be most pleased with you boys being here tonight. It seems you three need to be taught a lesson in remaining one with the shadows."

"Our Grandpa will come and kick your butts!" Tum Tum said, straining against the two ninjas that were holding him tight. In the process an object fell from his uniform and made a tinkling noise as it bumped on the catwalk and fell to the ground.

"What's this?" The red ninja walked up to the green gem that lay there in the grass and picked it up, studying it carefully. Soon enough, the man recognized the object in his hands, and its importance, "Ah, the Ninjitsium. Mr. Snyder will be ecstatic at how easy it was to get this from you little brats."

"What?" Colt and Rocky said at the same time. Upon realizing what happened, all his brothers could do is both look at Tum Tum with extreme scorn from underneath their masks.

"With this, we can proceed as planned. Men! Take these three rats to the holding area!"

One by one, Rocky, Colt, and Tum Tum were led back to the front of the building. There, they were taken inside and were walked through the training grounds. Various ninjas stopped what they were doing to stare at the three brothers as they were led by. One ninja saw the kids and stopped practicing roundhouse kicks on his punching bag to turn around and stick up his middle finger at them.

Colt noticed the gesture by the ninja and shot him an angry look, gritting his teeth as he did so.

"Huhhuhuhuhaaa…" The anonymous ninja laughed from beneath his clear plastic mask over his eyes, enjoying the fact that he was getting to the best of Colt, "Frickin' little punks."

Colt strained against the hands of his captors to try and take a swing at the ninja, but they held him tight. "You wanna go? What is your problem, man? I'll wipe the mat with your face!" Colt screamed at the ninja, but he just laughed again.

"Colt! Shut up!" Rocky commanded.

The prison caravan kept moving until they snaked their way down a few smaller hallways lined with various pipes hanging from the ceiling, and fire extinguishers on the walls. They passed many empty rooms as they had seen before, but others were stacked with unmarked crates and boxes that were filled with assault rifles, pistols, and fragmentation grenade parts. Eventually they were led to an area and thrown into a small room with a steel door. The red ninja stood in the doorway for a moment before leaving.

"I'm going to contact Mr. Snyder personally. He will want to take care of you three himself," Wu informed.

"Tell him to take his time," Tum Tum said sarcastically.

Wu the red ninja just stared at all three from underneath the plastic housing of his red ninja face covering. After a moment, he turned to leave, closed the door, and the boys heard the sound of a lock being clicked into place. They sat there, sullen, for a few moments, waiting for the enemies to leave the nearby area.

* * *

"So what the hell were you thinking, Tum?" Colt said while punching a box that was strewn about the messy room they were stuck in, "Bringing Grandpa's stone here was not part of the plan!" The boys had actually gotten caught on purpose; they wanted to be captured so they could be brought further into the manufacturing plant without any problems. Rocky had told Tum Tum to bring his jellybeans, and he strategically placed them around Awesome's truck where someone would notice.

"I'm sorry guys, I didn't know they were going to see it. I only brung it because I was scared Snyder would hurt Mom….I figured if everything else failed we could bargain with it to get her back!"

"You're so useless."

"Shut up, no I'm not!"

"It's okay Tum," Rocky consoled, "Let's just stick to the plan. Colt, do you still have your lock pick?"

Colt jumped off of the box he was sitting on, and pulled an electronic device out of the sleeve of his gi. "At least I'm better at hiding stuff," He shot at Tum Tum. Tum Tum just ignored his brother.

The lock pick tool that Colt had was unique; it was designed by their friend Amanda before she left for school a few years back. It was a small black box that had a rubber tip that could be inserted into a lock. Amanda designed it so that it would conform and fit to match the lock pins in a matter of seconds, greatly reducing the amount of time compared to picking it manually.

Colt struck the device into the small hole and waited. Soon enough, three beeps were heard as the lock pick found the correct shaping of the lock, and on the fourth beep he was able to turn the device counterclockwise and the door opened without a fight. "I'm really glad she gave me this. Practicing the old way was not fun," Colt said, relieved, "Grandpa would make me practice for hours."

"Forget about that. You still have your inshocktra gloves, don't you Tum?" Rocky asked, but Tum Tum was one step ahead of him. He was already strapping on the black ninja gloves that their friend had also designed. They had steel knuckles for protection, and for an added power they also delivered 10,000 volts of electricity in each punch; not enough to bring a man down alone, but enough to scare them or catch them off guard in a serious fight, adding an upper hand to the wearer.

"Let's murder them," Tum Tum said.

"Don't you mean-" Colt started.

"-Nope, shut up. Let's go." Tum Tum was serious this time. Amanda had given him the powerful gloves because he was the youngest of the boys, and always had trouble matching his brothers' power. He had learned all the same techniques that they did, but when it came down to it, it was much harder for him to take down someone of the same size. The gloves evened the group almost perfectly, and now his punches would be more powerful than even Rocky's.

Colt stuffed the electronic lock pick into his gi and pulled out another object, a seemingly innocent deck of cards, "It's a good thing they didn't find these too," He said. The cards were specially designed to be aerodynamic and have razor sharp edges so they could be thrown like ninja stars. Amanda gave them to him during the events at Mega Mountain last summer, and had proven to be of great help in their adventure.

"Okay, I still have my bo staff too, so I think we're good," Rocky advised while pulling out a one foot pole from his gi. Amanda redesigned Rocky's staff to be extendable with the push of a button in order to make it easier to carry. Rocky depressed the button on the side of the staff and watched as it expanded outwards on both sides to be six feet long. "There, it still works," he said, while contracting it back to the one foot shape so he could carry it, "Alright, let's go!"

They opened the door and headed out. The boys soon noticed they were deeper in the building than they thought. Rocky had been watching where they took them, so he was fairly sure he could direct them to the area where the ninjas took their mother. Immediately to their left was a long hallway that had doors on both sides, with another hallway leading to a larger room. The 3 ninjas ran into the open area to inspect it.

The room was littered with scrap and sheet metal on all sides; in the center there were many wooden tables with documents, makeshift mines, guns, and silvery powder laying on them. Some of the guns were in pieces, looking like they were in the middle of assembling some of them. In one corner, there were open crates with casings of what looked like bombs in them. They had entered phase 2.

Rocky, Colt and Tum Tum ran to the middle of the area thinking it was empty, but were ambushed by ten different ninjas holding katanas appearing on all sides. The ninjas pulled the tables to the sides of the room, managing the space perfectly. The brothers backed up on each other to face all sides evenly. They circled for a moment, contemplating their next move.

Suddenly, all of the surrounding ninjas ran at them quickly, and in a split second, Colt jumped on Rocky's shoulders, and Tum Tum ran up to Colt's, so they were sitting on each other's shoulders.

"Don't worry guys, we got this," Rocky said, while taking out his bo staff again and extending it to a six foot pole. He began turning his body in a counterclockwise motion, causing the brotherly totem pole to do a three hundred and sixty degree turn. At the same time, Rocky spun his bo staff so fast that none of the ninjas saw it coming, keeping both his brothers on his shoulders. Rocky hit anyone that got close to them at the bottom, while Colt repeatedly threw his ninja cards at the others all around from the middle. The ninjas one by one began falling over backwards because of bo staff hits, or pulling out cards stuck in their skin from Colt's precise aiming. One of the ninjas made a running leap toward Tum Tum at the top, but he was ready. When the bad guy came close, his head met the force of the young boy's electrified glove, causing him to twitch violently before falling over and slamming into the ground.

Tum Tum took this as a signal to move on, he performed a front flip off of Colt's shoulders, and Colt followed suit by jumping down from Rocky. Tum Tum threw a punch in the face of the nearest mercenary. A light spark was seen from his fist as the ninja was knocked out, and Tum Tum did a little celebration dance.

Colt faced two large men with swords, and he was without a weapon himself; he had used all 52 of his cards. Thinking quickly, Colt took out the small metal lock pick that Amanda gave him and threw it at the face of the ninja standing to his left. It connected and caused the ninja to fall back, while Colt landed a flying side kick to the chest of the ninja's partner. Turning back to the original enemy, Colt egged the man on by waving him to come towards him.

"Have you ever played street fighter?" Colt jeered just as crouched down and performed a spinning uppercut to the man's chin. The sound of air escaping the man's chest was heard, then the ninja fell to the ground hard. "Just call me Ken," he mocked.

Rocky was not bored in his area either. He was busy fighting off four enemies himself with his bo staff. With a simultaneous forward, back, forward, back motion, he landed four hits on the enemies in front and back of him, causing them to drop their swords. A few more cracks were heard as he smashed the hard oak pole when it connected with another standing ninja's head. The enemy fell to the ground, and Rocky did a backflip, extending his bo staff out so that the end landed on the laying soldier's chest. "Good thing I didn't learn pole dancing instead, heh heh!" Rocky said jokingly, with a smile underneath his green mask. He turned to see his brothers standing amongst the nonmoving bodies laying all around the room that were knocked out cold.

Colt had gone over to one of the tables and was looking at something on it. "Rocky, these look like weapon diagrams," Colt explained while holding up a large piece of paper that was laying on one of the tables.

Rocky walked up and looked at the paper. There was a sketch drawing of a bomb with various measurements and notes printed everywhere around the graphic. "You're right. I have no idea what this insane guy is planning, but that definitely looks bomb-ish. It looks like Snyder is up to his old tricks."

"Does that mean they're going to start swinging bombs at us?" Tum Tum asked.

"No Tum. Judging by the huge piles of guns in crates earlier, I think Snyder is selling them to people." Colt explained.

"Good," Tum Tum added, "I hate it when I get hit with nukes whenever I play Black Ops."

The brothers all walked to the nearest exit, and continued on their way toward their mother. They ran down several more hallways, looking inside the rooms as they went. Most of the rooms were empty, and they began getting discouraged. Eventually, they made their way to the main training room, which looked as though it had recently been vacated. There were punching bags hanging on all sides, the west wall had ropes dangling from them to practice climbing, and sparring equipment was strewn all about. The trio looked to the back and found only one man standing in the back, Mr. Jack Harding.

"So we meet again," Jack said.


	17. Chapter 16: New Enlightenment

**A/N: I am so sorry. It has almost been a month since my last update. I've been getting caught up enjoying the summer a little too much!**

* * *

"So you think you can take me down twice in a lifetime," Jack said to the three young boys while standing upon a raised platform, "Sorry to burst your bubble." Jack pulled a walkie talkie from his back pocket and pressed a button while speaking into the receiver. "Come get them, you idjits! They escaped!"

Immediately the three ninjas saw a door open in the corner of the room, and were met by the three that attacked them at their grandfather's cabin. They stood a distance away from the boys while folding their arms across their chests.

"Ha ha ha! Mary had a little log jam, dudes!" Buzz yelled cockily, with a toothy underbite grin on his face.

"That doesn't even make sense," Colt shot back.

The three ninjas had encountered Buzz, Awesome and Rooster before, so they were fairly confident that these three would not hinder them at all. The three brothers readied up for battle, and but were interrupted by Jack Harding's annoyed southern accent.

"Now," Jack started, tapping a cattle prod in his hand, "I don't care how you boys got here. I don't care that you injured some of our best men. And I honestly don't even care how you boys escaped..."

"-We did it on purp-" Tum Tum started, but was stifled by Colt's hand that clamped his mouth shut.

Jack leered at the young boys below. "Did it on purpose, didja, eh? Just to throw the skittles in my britches one last time?" Jack propped the cattle prod against his leg and pulled out a bag of sunflower seeds from his pocket. After tossing a handful into his mouth and chewing, he paused. "Or maybe you're trying to save that woman in room 14. No matter…" Jack smiled and spit a few seed shells and pointed at Tum Tum, "…we have the ninjisium thanks to this little brat. Preparations have already begun on the Big Bertha 6 weapon."

"And here all this time, I thought you were just using it to wipe your butt," Colt quipped.

"Get them, you morons!" Jack swung his cattle prod, pointing at the three ninjas standing opposite of the three idiots.

"You losers think you got it in the bag, well guess again you little pukes! I've got a newsflash for you, you're not the only one with an old man teacher!" Buzz sneered while slapping the backs of his two compadres.

"Buzz!" a voice said behind the new three. Wu the red ninja was yelling at his student. "Stop wasting time and attack the enemy!"

Buzz nodded his head. "Right," he said, "Let's do this!"

Rocky was feeling assertive since their previous battle they had easily won, so he ran at Awesome with incredible velocity. At the last minute, he bounded up onto the wall and performed a side flip, going over the six foot bouncer's head. Awesome was at first startled by Rocky's ability to jump so high, but then he restrained his awe. He was ready for him this time, and would not let him take over the fight.

As soon as Rocky went flying upside down above his head, Awesome swiftly grabbed the ninja by his right leg and arm, and threw him onto the unpadded concrete floor with his full strength.

A dull _thud_ was heard as Rocky's side hit the cement ground. He bounced four feet before gasping for air as he struggled to get back up. The fall had knocked the wind out of him, as he had not expected Awesome to catch him in mid air. It seemed last time they fought Awesome's speed was significantly slower. He flipped up to his feet and regained his composure.

"Aye YA! Aya!" Rocky shouted at the top of his lungs as he attacked his opponent. Awesome blocked his two fast kicks and a right hook with his massive forearms, and then took the offensive by bounding at Rocky at full speed. Rocky backed up all the way to the west wall, blocking Awesome's attacks. When he hit the wall, he changed direction and ran up a set of stairs to his left that led to a catwalk that overlooked the entire training facility. At the same time, Tum Tum had ran towards Buzz at top speed.

"Aiye YA!" Tum Tum screamed at the top of his lungs, while punching Buzz directly in the thigh. the hit was powerful, and the electric sparks flew from his special gloves, but Buzz did not falter.

"Hahaha, how considerate. A nice love tap from the wimp!" Buzz said, while standing over Tum Tum.

Tum Tum ran at Buzz again and slid underneath his enemy's legs and delivered two quick punches to his calves, hoping he would fall. Buzz, however, was not injured the least bit. He began to get scared._ How did this guy not get hurt by his electric punch?_

Buzz turned around to face Tum Tum again. "Trying to figure out my secret? Rubber pants, duh. After I had that one accident at mega mountain, I figure I should prepare myself, and it just so happens it worked in my favor today. Huah Huah Huah! I'm so FUNNY!"

Buzz jumped on top of Tum Tum, pulled off his mask and began working his fists in punches towards his nose. Buzz weighed too much more than him, so all Tum Tum could do is put up both of his elbows in front of his face and cover for mercy. Blood started dripping from his little nostril as Buzz landed punch after punch. "How do you like that broken nose, fool?" Buzz laughed hysterically, "Its a lot easier to win now that I've learned a few things!"

"Tum Tum!" Colt ran out to help his brother, but he was swiftly blocked by Rooster, who came up about a foot above Colt. Rooster stared down at Colt menacingly.

"Move, or die Darren," Colt said through clenched teeth. Rooster just stood his ground. Colt reared up for a high kick, but Rooster mirrorred his move, both kicking each other in the side of each other's faces. Colt followed up with a barrage of fists to his enemy's ribcage, but each was blocked by him. Rooster followed suit with his signature 3 round burst punches to Colt's chest. Colt was able to block the first two, but the last punch Rooster threw a fast jab and connected with Colt's right cheek.

Colt fell back and rubbed his cheekbone. They were now pretty evenly matched. Looking again at Tum Tum sprawled out on the ground, he took off toward his brother. Before He got five steps into his journey, he was stopped by a throwing star that whipped in front of him and stuck in the padding on the ground. He turned around just in time to see Rooster chuck a bo staff javelin style directly at him.

Colt reacted quickly by pulling out one of his special cards and threw it directly at the bo staff. The ninja throwing card sliced the wooden pole right down the middle and flew past Rooster, who dodged it just in time. Rooster stared at the wall where the card stuck in the concrete. He leered back at Colt, who was holding a new set of throwing cards.

"Always keep a spare deck," Colt said, while flashing the cards.

Rooster's face grew hot with frustration. He angrily threw a multitude of objects at Colt: first a baseball, then two pairs of nunchucks, and finally a full wooden chair went flying at him all at once. Colt dodged the baseball easily to the left, slid beneath the fast spinning nunchucks. He then immediately jumped in the air and kicked his leg out splintering the flying chair to pieces. What Colt didn't see was that after Rooster had thrown the chair he had also thrown a handful of ninjaballs on the ground right underneath Colt's feet. When Colt landed on the ground he was greeted with an unexpected uneasiness in his balance. He wobbled for a moment before slipping off his feet while doing a half gainer and slamming onto his back.

Rooster took this free moment to jump up and throw another chair directly at Colt. The chair broke into pieces and shards of wood landed all around Colt.

"Unghh…." Colt tried to raise his head, but all he could see was stars. Rooster had landed on top of him and was pummeling his battered, bruised chest. He could not move while fist upon fist was breaking blood vessels all throughout his body.

Out in another corner, Rocky was still trying his best against the rubenesque fighter, Awesome.

"You're really lame if you think you're gonna win," Awesome leered at Rocky, fists still up and prepared to fight. He stomped on the steel grating of the catwalk and watched as Rocky stumbled to keep his balance from the resulting shockwave.

Rocky looked everywhere for something to gain an advantage on the big bouncer. Looking around he saw his brothers and the two idiots down below. Finally, he spied something in the corner, a large open vat full of water - the building's water treatment tank.

Rocky turned back to his opponent, lowered his gaze from beneath his mask, feeling his breath blow hot air up into his eyes from his excited respiration. He now knew what he had to do. He was now going to get Awesome angry enough that he would be distracted by his rage, and lure him close to the tank.

"You're really lame if you think your diet is working!" Rocky laughed. He ran up and attacked again using all his strength. He was kneeing his opponent in the gut over and over, but Awesome's large amount of fat protected himself from the blasts, so he just took the hits. Awesome finally got frustrated enough that he grabbed rocky by the collar and pulled Rocky in closer to avert his kicks.

"I bet you think you're good, but I'm better. You may have been able to dunk at age ten, but I can rip the rim off of a basketball net with my bare hands," Awesome gloated to Rocky.

"Provided that someone give you a reinforced ladder to climb up to it first, huh jumball?" Rocky taunted.

It was then that Awesome finally broke. He became angry and then reached back with his free hand and unexpectedly punched Rocky as hard as he could in the face, cracking his mask on one side. Rocky's head fell back because his vision had become blurred. Awesome casually flopped him onto the ground and began kicking him in the stomach. After a few, he switched by kicking him right in the groin, and Rocky howled in pain.

"How do you like that, white boy? Doesn't feel so good when its happening to you, does it!" Awesome yelled down at Rocky on the ground while continuing to kick him in the gut.

With a broken mask and obscured vision, Rocky could barely see anything around him. When he turned to his side to brace for Awesome's kicks he saw his brothers fighting down below. He could make out faint outlines of Tum Tum being harshly punched in the nose and throat by Buzz, and Rooster had moved on to taking a broken leg of a chair and was hitting Colt with it on the ground.

_Oh no, _Rocky thought. They had gone in overconfident and had underestimated their enemy. Since they did not follow their grandfather's advice, they were going to be beaten.

"Just what the hell were you thinking," Awesome said, while looking down at Rocky distastefully, "Don't you know that theres only one side that wins in a war? I'm merely taking the side that is going to the top." Awesome raised his foot over Rocky's head and held it there for a moment. Rocky started panicking, he did not have the strength or time to avoid having his head crushed by the fat guy's foot.

Just as the large foot descended six inches above Rocky's face, all of the lights in the building switched off, a growling yell was heard from the bouncer, and then the lights turned back on.

Rocky turned just in time to see his opponent stumble backwards for a few steps before finally falling over the side of the metal catwalk they had been fighting on. There was an enormous splash from the water treatment tank that the big man had fallen into, and everyone fighting in the training area down below stopped to see what had happened.

Buzz looked around. "What the hell?" He said.

One second later, a wire wrapped around the boy's legs and jerked his body off in one direction.

"AHH!" Buzz screamed, while hitting the ground. He checked his lip for bleeding because he had hit his face when he fell.

Meanwhile, Rooster was about to crack a pool cue across Colt's back. The lights were shut off mysteriously for one moment, and Colt watched as Rooster disappeared and reappeared above him. When the lights came on, Rooster saw a baseball get thrown from the shadows. It was so quick that he had no time to react to the flung object and it connected with his face, breaking his nose.

"AAAAAAGHHHH! Dammit! AHH! That hurts like hell!" Rooster screamed in agony from his unknown assailant. Blood was gushing from his face, and he immediately grabbed his nose, trying to dull the pain.

"He...he talks?" Wu muttered from the sidelines. He was confused as to what was happening, and surprised at Rooster's outburst. He had been training him for an entire week and had never heard him speak one word!

"NOO! I can't...take this, the little bastards..." Rooster cried as he fell to the ground, holding his nose and blood increasingly covering his face.

Colt turned to his side on the ground and looked at the baseball that had rolled next to him. He noticed it had a team name on it that read: "The Dragons". It was one of their old team baseballs!

Buzz had enough strength left to pull the weighted cord from his ankles and look around for the intruder. "What the hell is going on here?!" He yelled, while throwing the thick cord onto the ground in a fit. The lights flickered and He felt something tap his back, so he turned around. Again the lights flickered and there was a touch felt on his neck, so he turned another 180 degrees. Buzz was getting nervous. He scanned the area, but noticed a wooden stick that had fallen out of Rocky's gi earlier. He quickly snatched it up and began waving it around viciously. "Whoever you are, I'm gonna smash your face in!" He screamed in desperation.

Suddenly in the process of Buzz waving the one foot pole around, he accidentally pressed the small black button on the side causing the whole rod to expand quickly. The power of the pole extended and hit him squarely on the chin, knocking him out.

"You son of a buuuuu..." Buzz's words were cut off as he fell to the ground and slipped out of consciousness.

The lights flickered once more and when they returned, their Grandpa Mori Tanaka was standing in the center of the room, clad in his black ninja uniform and holding his sword by his side. The three boys perked their heads up, noticing who had arrived.

"Who is it? Grandpa?"

"Grandpa?"

"GRANDPA!"

"Well hello boys," Grandpa said warmly. The boys leaped to their feet with a newfound strength found in knowing they had their grandpa by their side. Their faces were serious now. Tum Tum put his mask back on, and all four held their defensive stances.

Jack looked startled for a moment, and turned to the red ninja. Wu was prepared. Taking the radio from Jack's hands he screamed into the mouthpiece, "Ninjas! Phase 1!"

Immediately scads of ninjas came running in from all sides and surrounded the four, standing to attention as another man entered the raised platform area behind Jack Harding. This man was wearing a dark red ninja outfit that had black diamonds all over it, and he had a thick brown ponytail down to his shoulders with cocky, gap-toothed smile on his face.

It was the one and only Hugo Snyder.


	18. Chapter 17: The Enemy Revealed

**A/N: Thanks again to the people PMing me and leaving feedback (tessy, lighter), I really appreciate it. I almost gave up on this story (So close to the end too!) but you guys are keeping me going. Thank you! Maybe if this goes well enough I'll make a small series of stories after this one.**

* * *

Snyder started clapping as he walked over to the scene full of ninjas before him. "Niiice…Very nice, old man. So what are you doing here?"

"I am here to stop your madness!" Mori shouted from below the platform.

"Madness?" Snyder put a feminine hand to his mouth whilst giving a small fake laugh, "I guess you have caught me."

Grandpa, enraged by Snyder's sarcastic attitude launched back, "You will let my family go!"

"I don't think you understand how little authority you have in this situation, Mori. This whole time I've been rotting in jail, for what? For snot-nosed brats! Well the joke's on you boys. The entire time I was in prison I spent my time plotting my revenge, and to make a little money on the side.

"I had the perfect plan to ship a few crates of missiles to my contact, Colonel Fuerek, and make a quick billion. Had the transaction gone through, I would be miles away in a mansion, enjoying my life. Unfortunately, I had the bad luck of running into these three runts who ruined my plan indefinitely. But, thanks to the new Big Bertha 6 plans, I will now have billions at my disposal for me to escape and live in perfect leisure."

Jack turned to Snyder, "You…you do mean, we, don't you?"

Snyder did not move, but merely remained looking forward. "No," He said, trailing off.

"Whadya mean, no?! I provided the capital funding for this venture, and we had a fourteen page contract!"

"What you failed to realize is that I used you Jackie boy, all I needed was your money to set up my base of operations again. Now that I'm all set up and have access to all of your financial accounts, it doesn't take a mathematician to realize you aren't needed in this equation."

"But you cannot merely rescind from your contractual obligations without any kind of repercussions!"

"Oh, but I can." Snyder pulled out a rolled up bundle of papers from the arm-sleeve of his karate gi and held them out in front of himself. In one quick movement from his other hand, He karate chopped the papers so they ripped right in half, and the pieces fell to the ground. Snyder turned to a ninja standing to his right. "Clean that up and flush the pieces in the toilet," He ordered.

"Sir," the ninja saluted his boss with his right hand to his temple, "Y-you do know you're not in prison anymore and you can throw things out in the trash can-"

"-Fool! I do not want to hear it! Do as I say! …Or I will rip out your spinal column!" Snyder screamed at the underling, with a large vein popping out of his neck. The ninja complied by picking up the strips of paper and heading towards the bathroom.

Snyder turned back to the boys and grandpa and a smile crept up on his face in an evillish grin, but was halted by a jolt of electricity that struck his side. Jack had apparently gotten angry enough that he decided to hit Snyder on the side of the hip with his cattle prod.

"You moron! You are just power hungry! If you try to run this business alone, you will run it into the ground! Do you hear me?"

Snyder grabbed Jack's cattle prod and snapped it in half with his hands as if it were a twig. "On the contrary Jackie, The only thing being run into the ground will be you." Jack's eyes opened and he gave Snyder a quick look. Before he could even react, Snyder delivered a split-second roundhouse kick to Jack's face, nailing him in the jaw. The older man couldn't even see it coming - he had no choice other than to take the hit, causing him to fall to the ground.

Jack laid on the ground and wiped his face of the blood with his suit jacket. "You imbecile…" he growled from the floor.

"Hm? I thought you would be unconscious from that kick. You must be more thick-headed than I thought," Snyder looked at his former partner with disgust and turned to a nearby soldier, "Get him out of here. He has been expended of his usefulness," Two of the nearest ninjas grabbed Jack by his wrists and ankles and started dragging him toward the east exit.

"This isn't over yet!" Jack screamed while flailing obnoxiously in their grasp. He finally moved enough to get out of their hold. "I'm going. But I will be meeting with the Colonel before you! That way I can explain this atrocity!"

"Go ahead, you dumb redneck, I have years of partnership with Colonel Feurek. I'm sure there will be no problems on my end."

"Natch! I should have expected this from a petty arms dealer!" Jack screamed and his face became even redder. He turned to one of the ninjas on his right and grabbed the AR-15 machine gun from his hands, "Give me that!" the old man demanded, and he began to swing the butt end of it wildly at his captors. "Piece'a shit ninjas!"

"Ah!" One of the ninjas cried out from getting hit in the head with the rifle. He grabbed his head and fell to the ground. Two more ninjas fell when Jack kicked them in the belly, and then he ran for the exit.

A few ninjas started after the businessman, but Snyder stopped them with a hand signal. "Leave him. He was fun. Maybe I'll look him up in a few years to see how well he recovered. Now," He turned back to the crowd while cracking his neck, "I'm going to give you one final offer, Mori. Teach my men and join me."

Mori stood his ground and kept an angry face. "No. Never."

Snyder hung his head low, but then lifted it, smiling. "Then consider this your final summer. I'm going to have to kill you."


	19. Chapter 18: Attack?

**A/N: Thank you for the continued support! (That sounds so generic, lol.) Really, it is appreciated. I will admit this chapter is more informational, but I promise, more action is coming up!**

**It looks like this month was update crazy for other 3 Ninjas FanFictioneers! I have been enjoying the good new reads!**

**Also, working on an outline for a second short story!**

* * *

Rain started pouring down around the large manufacturing facility where Snyder set up shop. The gravel parking lot started becoming a small muddy lake as the fat raindrops plastered the area. Sam Douglas was in front of a group of F.B.I. operatives outside the compound quickly briefing the men on the rundown of the op. They were stationed about a quarter mile away from the plant, all of the agents getting ready were wearing black clad body armor, gloves, and thick soled boots. Men were handling various weapons, checking their gear for any problems, and strapping on black helmets. Things were about to get serious.

"Okay boys, this plan is fairly simple, we go in and get out. I want Snyder, and I want him alive. He must pay for his crimes, and the wild goose chases he's led us on over the years. I want you all to take a few minutes to study the blueprints we have supplied via your mission navi-tool," Sam ordered whilst the large audience of trained men looked to their small electronic devices stored at their waistbands.

Turning around to think, Sam looked down at the walkie talkie he gripped in his right palm as water droplets rained on him. Sam was filled with dread when he had learned that Snyder was actually succeeding with his plans, and still had his wife. He cared deeply for his family, his boys, because of that he had prepared ahead of time by sending two federal agents to watch them immediately after he had found out that Snyder was out. Knowing that the boys would probably do something reckless to try and stop Snyder, the agents tailed the boys to the hideout and reported back to their father, unbeknownst to them. He had used his extensive career and rank in his department to pull every string he could possibly pull, and in turn had assembled a massive group of highly specialized agents who would get in and out of the facility with little to no problem. Turning back to his men, Sam spoke.

"Now men, remember. There will be no firearms used in this mission, my boys are in there. If one bullet goes stray, that could cost an innocent life. We are using non-lethal weapons only. Team alpha, you will attack the main training facility directly and eliminate the ninja threats while securing my family members. Team bravo will go in and attempt to break out my wife from the western facility undetected. If anything is to happen to my wife or kids, you are to give me the callsign via the radio. I will send word to have the place taken down immediately. We have a KAF-17 helicopter on standby that will light the place up and down. You get out and we will obliterate the place, You got that?" Sam stared intensely at some of the closeby FBI and swat team members and waited for a response. "Good. Lets get this damn bad guy for good."

The soldiers marched and lined up in formation behind the manufacturing facility in a specified file while Sam angrily stomped over to the special operations armored van they had parked nearby in the shadows. He was trembling at the thought of Snyder taking yet another shot at his family.

* * *

Back in the ninja warehouse, Snyder was lecturing Grandpa on his insolence.

"You are one stubborn old codger, you know that, Mori? There seems to be quite a bit of bad blood between us ever since you left our old business partnership," Snyder folded his arms across his broad chest.

"That was not a partnership!" Grandpa spat, "If I had known what you were doing to soil the respect of the ancient martial arts, I never would have agreed to teach with you!"

"Come on, Mori. Don't even try to cover your past. Deep down you remember coming to me to teach with you..."

"Grandpa, what is he talking about?" A small voice said behind Grandpa. He creaked his head slightly to see Tum Tum's scared look. Clenching his fists, the little grandson took a step back.

"Your grandfather never told you?" Snyder smiled, "Oh, ho, ho, this is rich. Of course you know that this old fart here taught me all that I know about ninjitsu, but he also sought me out in my later years to help create an entire army of ninjas!"

Rocky turned to his elder. "Is that true Grandpa?"

There was a long pause before Mori said anything. Finally, his head dropped, and his chest fell. "It is true."

"What?" All three boys yelled, and looked as they had been betrayed by their own mentor.

"It is _true_ that I taught Snyder everything I knew, not just about martial arts, but also about morals, and unity between a ninja and his spiritual balance," Grandpa was pointing at Snyder on the platform.

Snyder just held out his open palms up to his shoulders and smiled at the group below him as if to say, See? I was right.

"But," Grandpa continued, " It is also _true_ that I caught this man using our adult classes to recruit soldiers to train a ninja army after hours, and was paying them to rob houses in the city like a petty mafia. It is _true_ that this man was corrupted by the world of illegal dealings for more money. It is _absolutely_ _true_ that this man strayed from the true path of a ninja, is not the same man that I had taught many years ago!"

"Look old man, you don't know the first thing about unity," Snyder looked to his army of ninjas around the captives, put his fingers to his lips and emitted a loud whistle, "MEN! WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LIFE!" he shouted to the crowd.

"AYYYEE-YAAA!" the whole crowd shouted Immediately while each soldier pumped a fist in the air.

Snyder took a moment to let the feeling sink into the quartet below him on the padded training floor before shifting slightly and and giving the old master a quizzical look.

"Just a thought before I kill you - how were you planning on getting out of here, Mori old pal?"

"We fight," Grandpa compromised, "You and me alone, no one else."

"Oh, I know this scenario, sounds strangely familiar. No. Not this time," he waved a long finger at the old man below him, and Colt noticed a strange marking on Snyder's barely showing right forearm. It looked like a snake to him.

"Rocky, did you see that? On his arm, was that a tattoo?" Colt whispered to Rocky from behind Grandpa.

"Yeah, It looked like stitches or something. Nevermind that now, pay attention," Rocky answered quickly.

Snyder continued. "I am going to make you pay for ever not taking my advice and teaching my men. Consider this the student becoming the teacher by breaking the teacher. What's more-"

Snyder's speech was cut off by a noise that was heard far off in the distance that sounded like glass shattering, and then a cylindrical object plopped on the mats right in between Mori and Snyder. Immediately recognizing it to be a flash grenade, Mori jumped onto his grandsons. "Shield your faces boys! This will light up YOUR eyes!" he cried.

The three boys grunted as they were forced to the ground by their grandfather. The metal tinkling sound of an ignitor primer being initiated was heard and then an immense explosion sounded, sending even some of the ninjas to the ground. The entire facility lit up a brilliant white color, and they were all blinded. Men cowered and screamed at the agony of being distorted and blinded by an unknown assailant.

After a half minute, The fuse on the grenade had burnt out, but the men were still regaining their composure. At the same time, a barrage of heavily armed FBI agents poured in from all exits on the bottom level and began attacking the ninjas that were in there with black clubs and tasers.

"Freeze!" One agent shouted.

"Get over here, you're under arrest…ugh!" Shouted other agents while fighting off the belligerent ninja soldiers in hand-to-hand combat.

It was complete madness, people were fighting everywhere. Colt was the first to get up, rub his eyes and notice the scene that had unfolded before them. "Hey," he mentioned, "These are FBI agents, Rocky. Dad must have followed us!"

"Where did Grandpa go?" Rocky noticed.

"I don't know, but we better help these guys or we'll get creamed for being in the way!"

"Anyone have some cream?" Tum Tum asked, while getting up from the ground.

"Forget your stomach and do this for Grandpa for once, Tum! Pack your lunch box, because I'm going in, guys! Mind and Body!" Rocky yelled above the maelstrom.

"...Heart!" Tum Tum added.

"...And spirit of the young wild horse!" Colt declared. The three brothers jump-kicked into the crowds of fighting ninjas, screaming aiya all at once.

Among the men who were affected by the flash grenade was Snyder. He fell to one knee while holding his right forearm over his eyes to protect his already weakened optical state. He could not keep anything from moving in his vision, and the flash had made a giant white spot appear in his field of vision. Finally, he mustered enough courage to stand back up, and growled in pain. His fall from the flash had caused him to fall on his side on the edge of the platform, leaving him with a few broken ribs. He rubbed his eyes enough to see the massive fighting scene that was unfolding in his own complex. There, right in the middle were the three runts, taking down three and four of his men in combat at a time. People were screaming and gasping in pain everywhere, his ninjas fell to the ground with taser wounds. All his planning, hard work, it was all for nothing! He had the upper hand and had let it escape his grasp, and he felt like a fool. In his disillusioned state, he began recalling some of his past memories.

"_Take my words as the truth. Never attack unless you can win. Even if you are the strongest, fastest, or smartest, never underestimate your enemy,_" Mori's old teachings still rang in his head.

"_And what, Mori? Are you saying we should always be on the defensive? What is the point of learning ninjitsu if I can't attack someone first who deserves it?_" Snyder would reply.

"_What you're describing is the wrong side of the coin, Hugo. If you truly desire such things, the only enemy you will have is yourself,_" Grandpa shunned him.

Snyder further took in the scene before him, and finally realized how much it enraged him. "Kill them! Kill them ALL! That is an ORDER!" Snyder screamed to anyone that could hear him, while holding his aching side and edging his way back to the stairs to the upper level, leaving his men to take care of the FBI mess in phase one.


End file.
